Sweet Music
by CrazyKitCat
Summary: Two girls, a music producer and a cook transfer to Ouran Academy. See what happens when they meet our our strong, silent host and our Shadow King, as they shake the grounds of everything Ouran has ever known.
1. Prologue

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please excuse my writing. It WILL get better as the story goes on, but this is the first time I've actually written in 2 years. This story was inspired by a conversation with my wonderful friend Lullaby-of-the-lost, who I met in college. She will be helping me by co-writing this with me! Please enjoy our introductory chapter!**

Our story starts after a semester in France. Beatrice and I are in a small café, enjoying some coffee on cold, rainy winter day.

"Hey, Melody!"

"What do you want," I said, recognizing her tone without even glancing up from the stats on my computer.

"Do you remember how I signed up to work at that traditional Japanese sushi house?"

"Mm," I said, glancing up to look up at my best friend of 9 years, wondering where she was going with this. She and I met in the foster care system in America when I was 9 and she was 7. Almost nine years later, I'm 17 and she's 15 as we study abroad as emancipated minors. The main reason why we spent the previous semester in France, was so that she could study the art of making French pastries while I practically knocked out all of my high school credit classes online. The only reason I have my senior 4 core credits remaining, is because I manage my own music production business online, known as Catchya Music.

"Well, the instructor told me that there was a really good apprenticeship that he signed me up for."

"That's awesome," I say. Although Beatrice is only 15, she has always been a great cook. However, I've known Bea for years, and I know by her tone, there's something she's not telling me. "What will you be studying?"

"The apprenticeship is for traditional Japanese cooking," she trailed off.

"Okay. Come out with it," I said, closing my laptop. Last time she trailed off like that, it meant that something big was about to happen.

"The apprenticeship is in Japan," she mumbled into her coffee. To say I was surprised would be an understatement, as my eyebrows shot up. "But it's such a great opportunity and I heard about Ouran, but I never thought I'd get in. You know the school will accept you with your grades, and considering you just need you four final core credits, studying online shouldn't be too hard. Please can we go?!"

I sigh, seeing the excited sparkle in her eyes. I can never say no to her when she gets like this. I open my computer and pull up the website. "From what I see, Ouran Academy is expensive. Not to mention, we will be practically starting our academic year over or skipping the rest of this year since the Japanese school year starts in the spring. How do you expect to pay for it?"

"Since we already took all of our mandatory classes online for this spring, I was thinking we could just skip forward. That way, I'll start my sophomore year schooling, and be a first year at Ouran and you would skip forward to be a third year. Plus, the school is offering me a scholarship to attend the cooking program as well as a work-study in the cafeteria at the school."

"If that's the case, why don't I just take the credits online and work from home?" I ask, still typing away on my laptop.

"Because it'll be your senior year Mel, and you need to experience school-life, just like I want to. We've been travelling around so much and I know how you've wanted to live in Japan since you were six. Well, this is the perfect chance to! Not to mention, you can attend all of the advanced math and science classes you could dream of. Plus... A little birdie told me Ouran has some pretty awesome business classes!" She explains animatedly.

"As awesome as that all is Bea... Where do you expect us to live? It's not like Ouran has dorms for foreign students."

"I actually thought of that already! I looked it up on some websites and found some really cute images of reasonably priced two-bedroom, one bath apartments. The best part is, they're just two blocks from the school," she says as she beckons for my computer. I grudgingly hand it over with a small fake pout, as she pulls up the website for me to look at.

I have to say, all things considered, it _was_ a pretty nice place. "Have you considered how we'll pay for this apartment?" I ask, as I pull the computer back towards me and begin typing again. After a pause, I look up to see her guilty smile, which means she's hoping I'll pay for it with the money I earn from Catchya Music.

"Please," she begs, her hands clasped together in a pleading motion as she unleashes her killer puppy-dog eyes.

"Really?!" I ask exasperated as she ups the antics with her lower lip jutting out to add a pout. "Fine," I sigh dramatically. "We leave on Tuesday," I say as I finish applying a down payment on the apartment after booking the flight.


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you who read the previous chapter, make sure you review!**

A week later, Beatrice and Melody find themselves juggling 5 suitcases, two bookbags and one laptop case outside of Tokyo Airport.

"Remind me again why we had to bring all of your production equipment? You don't even have a studio set up or clientele to produce for!" Beatrice complained as she tried to grab one of the two massively, heavy suitcases dedicated to her best friend's equipment off of the baggage claim.

"Because last time we had it shipped to us, they broke half my stuff!" Mel reminded her cheerfully, as she easily lugged the bag off the claim.

"Well what are we going to do with it now? We can't exactly fit it in the cab, and I don't think the bus will take us with all of our stuff!"

The reality of Bea's words hits Melody dumbstruck for a moment and she instantly zoned out as she tried to come up with a solution. She was so zoned out that she didn't even notice when one of their bags came out, immediately followed by another three large bags.

Knowing Melody is completely lost in the statistics flying through her head, Bea sighs exasperatedly as she goes to grab the bag containing their clothes, but is quickly stumped by the weight of the other bags on top of it.

"Can I help you with that sweetie?" A male voice says from over her shoulder.

"Yes, that would be amazing Mr. Uh-" Bea's words caught in her throat when she turned around and beheld her savior.

The voice of the person she originally thought to be male, turned out to be a woman... She thought. Her savior had a head full of long red hair, a beautiful face accentuated with makeup and a purple sundress, wrapped around their frame.

"Oh please dear, call me Ranka!" he-sorry-she said as she easily grabbed their last suitcase from the baggage claim. "Where are you and your sister headed with all of these bags?" Ranka inquired before realizing they weren't accompanied by an adult. "Are you meeting your parents here?"

"Actually," Bea said apologetically, "according to the American legal system, my friend and I are joint emancipated minors who rely on each other. We don't have parents."

"Oh, my dears! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! Your Japanese was so good, I didn't even realize," Ranka exclaimed in embarrassment. "If you're from America, whatever brings you two to Japan with all of these bags?"

"Oh! Melody and I were just accepted into Ouran Academy! We start on Monday, but we were planning on moving into our apartment today. The reason why my friend has had such _poor manners_ right now is because she's trying to figure out how to get these bags there. I'm afraid we don't know what to do since we can't fit it all into a cab and we only have enough yen on hand for one taxi."

"Oh my goodness! Well that won't do! Where is your apartment located?" Ranka exclaimed.

"Oh! We'll be moving into the Alexan Apartments Complex."

"What a coincidence!" Ranka exclaimed. "That's where I live! You girls must be the two who are moving in next door to me and my daughter Haruhi, who I think is about your age! Please allow me to welcome you girls to Japan by giving you a lift! I have a van rented for the day, as I was accompanying my friend to the airport!"

"That _would be _quite lovely! _Wouldn't_ it Melody?!" Bea said as she elbowed her friend in the side.

"Huh, wha-?" Melody said, looking around startled, but still not quite present in the conversation. "Oh yes, nice to meet you!" She bowed to Ranka using perfect etiquette with fluent Japanese. "Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out a small problem of ours," she said before zoning out again.

Bea sighed before turning back to Ranka. "Thank you so much! That would be a huge help!"

"Wonderful!" Ranka exclaimed as he grabbed our two largest bags, full of Melody's stuff. "Let's go!"

That's all it took to bring Melody back to planet earth.

"A transvestite just stole my stuff," she said dumbfounded.

"Yes, Melody," Bea said as she threw her book bag over her shoulder before grabbing her two rolling suitcases.

"You found a transvestite on the street and let him touch my stuff!?"

"Yes! He's going to help us get _your_ _stuff_ to our apartment complex! He says his name is Ranka and he happens to live in the apartment next to ours!"

"Wait! Did you see any proof of this? How do you not know he's some crazy rapist who wears women's clothes?!"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Bea snapped back.

"But... But he took my stuff!" Melody complained in a childlike tone.

"Come on!" Bea sighed as she followed Ranka out of the airport. Melody quickly threw her book bag and laptop case over her shoulder before chasing after her beloved equipment, giving up on coming up with a better idea.

* * *

The entire way to the apartment complex, Ranka babbled on and on about his beloved daughter Haruhi.

"Ok, he may not be a rapist," Melody muttered into Bea's ear after 15 minutes in the car. "But he sure has one hell of a daddy complex."

"I think that it's sweet that he cares about his daughter so much," Bea smiled brilliantly at Ranka.

"Suck up," Melody muttered to another jab in the ribs.

"Thank you again for driving us Ranka! We truly appreciate it!" Bea beamed.

"Oh! After we get your keys and bring your stuff to your apartment, you both should totally join my daughter and I for dinner!" Ranka said animatedly.

"We wouldn't want to impose!" Mel quickly cut in.

"Oh please! We'd love to have you!" He said as the van pulled out in front of the complex. "Here, I'll take these bags upstairs, and you girls go over to that apartment over there to grab your keys!" Ranka said cheerfully as he grabbed Melody's large bags again.

"My stuff," Melody said in a sad puppy tone as she started to mindlessly follow after her beloved belongings.

"Come on," Bea sighed in exhaustion as she dragged her best friend to the building manager's apartment with the rest of their bags.

5 minutes later, the girls were walking up the stairs to be welcomed halfway up to the sound of Ranka's terrified cry of "HARUHI!" The girls were running before he was done screaming her name. When they burst into their new friend's apartment seconds later, they saw Ranka draped over a _girl? _The Haruhi they had heard so much about apparently didn't know much about fashion, since her hair was cut straight into a bowlcut.

"Hey dad," the girl greeted her wailing father. "Did you get Misuzu to the airport safely?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR?!" Ranka wailed, as the two other girls relaxed at the lack of danger.

"The boy in the neighborhood put gum in my hair, so I cut it off. It'll be easier to take care of this way," she said in a practically monotone voice.

"But it was so pretty!" Ranka wailed in grief.

"I don't really care what it looks like, I just didn't want to deal with the gum in my hair," Haruhi told her father honestly.

"Well, I might be able to help," Melody tentatively stepped in.

"And... Who are you?" Haruhi asked the two strange girls in confusion. The taller girl who had just spoken had her long brown hair tied up into a high ponytail, with a mini black tophat sitting askew on her head that was accompanied by a red sash. She was wearing a matching long-sleeve red shirt, and black open vest, with black skinny jeans, black hightop Vans and an assortment of necklaces. Her makeup looked plain and professional, but with an artistic flair. Her friend's burgundy hair was tied up into a high tight bun, with strands falling to frame her face. Her long sleeved, knee-length blue dress had a modest oldage European feel with open laces on the front. Her makeup had a very natural feel to it that accentuated her natural features. Their facial features and their mannerisms gave them away as American, although both girls were speaking perfect Japanese and had remembered to take off their shoes. After walking over to shake the girls' hands, Haruhi couldn't help but notice how the girl in blue was actually shorter than her, while her friend was quite a bit taller.

"I'm Melody," the first girl said in perfect Japanese.

"And I'm Beatrice, but you can call me Bea," the shorter one replied. "We met your father at the airport, and it seems like we're going to be next door neighbors. I hope we can be friends?"

"And _I_ hope you will let me fix your hair," Melody said in a no-nonsense tone.

"Sure, if you can make my dad stop weeping on the floor, go ahead," Haruhi said, gesturing to her father who was still crying prostrate on the floor.

"Do you mind if I whip up something for all of us to eat for dinner while you two do that?" Bea asked.

"Sure, Let's get your stuff into your apartment, and then you two can make yourselves feel at home," Haruhi said to her two new friends.


	3. Chapter 3

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please review for this story! For all of the fans who asked me about Destiny and Desires, Ennarre and I will be getting back to it soon, but in the meantime, please enjoy Sweet Music!**

A week later, the three new friends, found themselves at the gates of the school they had dreamed about. Haruhi, unable to afford the uniform, was dressed up in some of her father's old clothes. Melody and Beatrice had received their uniforms in the mail two days prior to the start of term. Bea had loved the girlish look of the girls' yellow uniform, but Melody had taken one look before repacking the dress and sending it back to the headmaster with a note saying that there was _no_ way she'd be caught dead in that "yellow atrocity." Melody, wearing the same outfit she had worn the day she had met Haruhi, looked up at the gates of Ouran Academy.

"This is going to be a really snobbish school, isn't it?" she asked her two friends.

"Please stop," Bea sighed. Haruhi had already wandered off, too preoccupied with her books to notice her friends weren't following, while Bea tried to blend in with her yellow uniform.

"Well, let's get this overwith," Melody said as she adjusted her laptop case over her shoulder, before looking up to see two bright blue eyes right in front of her. "What the-?!"

"Hello, you must be Ouran's two newest princesses!" The eccentric blond haired boy greeted them in English. "My name is Suoh Tamaki and this is my best companion, Ootori Kyoya."

"Pleased to meet your acquaintance," The black haired boy with glasses greeted them as well in English.

"Yo," Melody said in English, before switching to Japanese. "Your English is terrible, Blondie," she told Tamaki.

"I'm SO glad you noticed my beauty!" Tamaki said with stars in his eyes to the two slack jawed girls. "Please excuse me, but English is my third language after French and Japanese."

"So what?" Melody said, "Japanese is my sixth language and I still can speak it well." Kyoya's eyebrows rose in interest at this.

_This could be interesting,_ he thought to himself before stepping forward and offering his hand, a gesture which was blatantly ignored by the brunette while her dark purple haired friend quickly took it. "May we escort you ladies to the head's office?" he asked with his best host's smile.

"That would be extremely helpful," Beatrice said after she had introduced Melody and herself, as Melody looked Kyoya over with a thoughtful expression as if she were trying to read his very soul.

"Extremely helpful," Melody agreed in a sugary tone, with a smile Kyoya was sure was her "host" equivalent.

"Then let us guide you!" Tamaki said as he looped Bea's arm around his before leading her off. Kyoya and Melody watched as Tamaki half dragged poor Bea across the courtyard into the main building.

"Shall we?" Kyoya offered his arm to Melody with his best host smile.

"Sure!" she said, sugary-fake smile still in place. "If you can keep up, that is," she said before skipping off after her friend and Tamaki.

_This could be _very_ interesting_, Kyoya smiled as he followed after her.

* * *

After getting their schedules, Bea and Melody agreed to meet up at lunch. After splitting up with her best friend, Bea found her way to classroom 1-A and found Haruhi being pestered by twin redheads.

"Hi, Haruhi," Bea greeted her friend, effectively cutting off the annoyance. "Do you need any help?" she asked timidly.

"Oh, hey! No, I'm fine," Haruhi greeted her with a smile. "We should sit down before class starts."

By this point, the twins who had been annoying Haruhi, had sat in the far back of the classroom in the last two seats by the window. By this point, the only seats left were right beside them. Bea went to sit in the second to last seat as Haruhi sat behind her.

Meanwhile, Melody made her way to classroom 3-A, where she found an open seat in the far back corner of the classroom. She immediately pulled out her laptop and pulled up the stock reports for Catchya Music.

"Why aren't you wearing the uniform?" a cheerful voice chirped beside her. Melody looked up to see a tall muscular silent man with a small blond boy on his shoulders, who looked to be even shorter than her best friend.

"Because that yellow is horrendous, and I wouldn't be caught dead in it," she replied before going back to the stocks.

"What are you looking at Mel-chan?"

Melody sat back and tried to clear her head by slowly shaking it a few times before turning back to the boy lolita. "_What_ did you just call me?" she asked in her sickly sweet voice.

"Mitsukuni, stay back," the tall one said, while pushing the small one behind him.

"But, Takashi, she's just sad because she's so scary that no one but us wants to be her friends," the one known as Mitsukuni said as he stepped around the one known as Takashi. Both Melody's and Takashi's eyebrows raised at his comment, but Takashi's eyes widened in concern as Melody's darkened in anger.

"Mitsukuni, we should find our seats," Takashi said in warning.

"Please," Melody said in her sweetest voice. "Morinozuka Takashi and Haninozuka Mitsukuni, there are two empty seats beside me, and I would _love it _if you would sit with me."

By this point, Mitsukuni was hiding behind Takashi. "Takashi? How does she know our names if we haven't introduced ourselves?"

"I've done my research," Melody explained with a honest smile, "I know a lot about everyone at this school. I'm sorry for being harsh before, but I don't like it when people disturb me when I'm in business mode."

At that point, the teacher came in and orientation started and lasted until lunch. As Honey, Mori, and Melody walked to the cafeteria, they were met by the blond idiot and Kyoya in the hallway.

"Tama-chan! Kyo-chan!" Honey called to the two younger men.

"Why am I _not _surprised that you all know each other?" Melody muttered under her breath as she followed after the four men.

Halfway to the cafeteria, Honey called out, "Kao-chan! Hika-chan!" but before he could finish, Melody was dashing towards them.

"Haruhi!" she called, much to the shock and surprise of the men surrounding them. "Come eat lunch with me!"

"But I was going to go to the libr-"

"You can do that _after_ _we eat_!" Melody cut off the wide-eyed Haruhi, before dragging her into the lunchroom. The six boys looked at each other before shrugging and following them into the cafeteria. Five of them froze though when they saw Melody and Haruhi chatting animatedly with the girl behind the counter. Kyoya walked straight up and greeted her with their orders. Tamaki, Hikaru, and Kaoru quickly followed, while Mori remained frozen.

"Takashi?" Honey asked, noticing his friend's raised eyebrows.

"Sorry," Mori replied before following after their friends.

"Kyoya! Why is this princess slaving away to her death in the kitchens?!" Tamaki exclaimed.

"Oh, you again," Bea greeted Tamaki. "I'm actually still not a princess. I work in here to help pay for this school. Melody is able to pay for her schooling with the earnings from her company."

"Oh you shall be our Cinderella! Locked away in the evil tower!" Tamaki exclaimed.

"Wrong fairytale," Bea sighed as she passed him his lunch and moved on to the next student.

"Hey, I'm leaving after lunch today since I have a client. Can you get home by yourself?" Melody asked Bea.

"Of course!" Bea replied. "We only live two blocks away. I can walk with Haruhi."

"But I'm planning on staying and trying to find some quiet place to study," Haruhi cut in.

"I can still make it home safe," Bea insisted.

"Fine," Melody grudgingly agreed, before the three of them split up.


	4. Chapter 4

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: We are idiots... Who have lives... We are not good at coordinating to write. Our deepest apologies...**

**Also, like every other writer and reader in this genre, we do not own Ouran, but wish we did... Too bad we don't...**

* * *

Later that evening, Bea was cooking in the kitchen of their 3 bedroom apartment as Melody was editing the track of the recording she had made with her client earlier that day in her studio. Like Haruhi and Ranka's apartment, they had a living room with a kitchen to the left, two bedrooms at the back, and a spare office to the right. Melody has converted the spare room into a music studio for her company. Since the room was soundproofed, she would have no trouble working from home to record and edit tracks. At the back of the apartment, the two bedrooms shared a connecting bathroom. Beatrice had taken residence in the left bedroom (so that she could be closer to the kitchen) and Melody (never wanting to be too far from her studio) had laid claim to the bedroom on the right.

Bea was working on making Japanese style Salisbury steak when she heard a soft, but frantic knock on the door. Calling out that she would be there in a minute, Bea turned the heat on the stove down before scurrying over to the door.

"Haruhi?!" Bea exclaimed in shock seeing the unconscious girl asleep in her senpai's arms. "And Morinozuka and Haninozuka senpais? What's going on? What's happened? Do you want to stay for dinner?" Bea fired question after question in concern as she led the tall, stoic man to her room to lay the stirring girl down. After making sure Haruhi was okay and now conscious, she escorted Mori out to the living room where Hunny had made himself comfortable to allow Haruhi some privacy to change.

"Thank you! We'd love to stay for dinner, right Takashi? And you can call us Hunny and Mori like everyone else, if you want?" Hunny called cheerfully as his cousin settled down next to him at the kotatsu.

"Please make yourselves at home!" Bea said as she scurried back towards the kitchen.

"Thank you" Hunny chirped. "Where's Mel-chan?"

"She's-" Bea started, before the door to the office slammed open.

"What's with all of the racket?" Melody grumbled, exiting her studio.

"Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai were kind enough to escort Haruhi home," Bea called from the kitchen before poking her head out. "Isn't that _nice_?" she asked her friend with a pointed look.

Melody's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Very nice," she agreed to her friend's comment. "As grateful as I am that Haruhi had two handsome escorts. I'm just curious why Mitsukuni and Takashi took it upon themselves to bring her here when it is in the opposite direction of their own homes." Melody stated with a questioning tone. "And if they escorted Haruhi here, where is she?"

"She?" Hunny asked surprised, but was not heard by the two other girls.

"She was unconscious when they brought her. She's now changing in the bedroom, could you please check on her?" Bea called from the kitchen as Melody made her way to Bea's room to check on Haruhi.

Hunny took the brief absence of their hosts to whisper to his cousin, "Did they just refer to Haru-chan as a girl?"

"Yeah," Mori pointed in the direction that Melody had recently disappeared. Standing in the doorway was Haruhi in a pair of sweats, a camisole, and an unzipped sweatshirt revealing the slight identifiable curves Mori had accidentally felt while carrying her to the car and to the door.

"Haru-chan! You look so cute!" Hunny exclaimed in surprise at his kohai's "big reveal."

"Uhhh... Thanks sempai," Haruhi grumbled.

"Now _what happened_?!" Melody stormed around her friend. "What do you mean Haruhi was unconscious? What's going on? Are you okay?" Melody asked, slightly frantic and upset that her friend had been hurt.

Sensing danger in her panic, Mori shoved his cousin behind him, "Mitsukuni, get back."

"Is that going to be a thing with you?!" Melody exclaimed at her classmate, her ire rising.

"Now, now, let's all calm down," Bea came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands off on a towel. "We can hold off on the killing until we've heard their explanation. Haruhi and Melody, would you mind helping me to set the table?"

"Okay," Haruhi agreed heading towards the kitchen, a grumbling Melody close on her heels. Once dinner was set on the table and everyone had been served, the two elder boys and Haruhi started explaining everything that had happened up until the point that Haruhi had fainted.

"So Haruhi was looking for a place to study," Melody started.

"And she found what she thought was an abandoned music room?" Bea asked.

"She ran into the Blondie-baka who proceeded to harass her."

"And she backed into a vase?"

"So you're saying she has to be your _dog_?!" Melody was fuming by this point as Bea was just confused.

"I don't understand... How much was the vase worth?" The younger of the two asked.

"8 million yen," Haruhi grumbled.

The roommates turned to look at each other before sharing a blink. After a moment, the older girl started laughing hysterically while the other two girls just looked at her questioningly. After her giggles calmed down, she apologized. "I'm sorry Haruhi, I really am, but there's nothing we can do to help you. You're on your own in this."

"Oh Melody... Maybe we _can_ help somehow..." Bea started. "I just made some rice crispy treats for us tonight, maybe we can make some more to help her make a better first impression tomorrow?"

"Treats?" Hunny piped up interested.

"Yes, I set them aside after cooking dinner," Bea said as she went to grab the marshmallow treats from the kitchen as the other two girls cleared the plates.

"Just bring the entire tray to the table," Melody told her closest friend as they both met up in the kitchen.

"But... But presentation..." Bea whimpered.

"It won't matter for more than two minutes," Melody countered when they heard another knock on the door. "Did you see Mitsukuni put away that cake at lunch?" she asked as she headed to answer the door to greet a delivery man.

After thanking him for delivering so late and signing for the large package, she headed back to the living room where she saw Mitsukuni had a treat in the shape of a bunny, Haruhi serving herself, and Bea serving Takashi a small slice to try. The small scene felt so natural it unnerved her, and yet she felt something large was missing and could not explain it. Something deep within told her that gap would be filled with time.

"Who was at the door?" Bea asked.

"Just a deliveryman bringing a large package for me."

"Were you missing some equipment?" Bea asked as Melody started to open the box.

"No, it's from the school," Melody replied, looking at the return address.

"What would the school be sending you?" Haruhi piped up as Mel finally got the box open.

"Oh no..." Melody said in horror, slowly backing away from the box. "I am _not_ wearing that."

Inside the box was her new blue uniform.


	5. Chapter 5

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: If we owned Ouran High school Host Club, do you really think we'd be writing on this site?**

* * *

The next morning, the three friends headed towards the West building of Ouran High school. Haruhi had been ordered to bring groceries and the Host Club wanted to give Haruhi the run-down of the host club. Beatrice offered to go with her as Melody ran to the Chairman's office, planning on joining the other girls in the host club room later. After discussing the new information of Haruhi's gender the previous night, Mori and Hunny had extended an invitation to Melody and Beatrice to join them in the club meeting the next morning, planning on revealing it to the rest of the club.

That morning, the Host club was going about their buisness as usual when Haruhi and Bea walked into their clubroom.

"Haru-chan and Bea-chan, you look so cute!" Hunny exclaimed jumping up from his whipped cream covered latte and coffee cake.

"Hunny-sempai! I thought you agreed to eat healthier last night!" Bea exclaimed, running over with a pre-packed bento to fuss over her sempai's bad eating habits. "Here, I made you a some breakfast that will be better for you! Here's some yogurt and fruit," she said, revealing a dish of bunny-shaped apples covered in a layer of vanilla yogurt.

"Last night?" exclaimed Tamaki as he turned a bright shade of red. "You two went to visit these girls without a chaperone?! I thought we raised you to be better gentlemen than that here!"

"What are you talking about Tama-chan?" Hunny asked, mouth full of fruit and yogurt, much to the happiness of Bea.

"When we brought the unconscious Haruhi home last night, her apartment was locked, so we knocked on her neighbor's door and Beatrice and Melody answered and invited us to stay for dinner in appreciation of us bringing her home," Mori explained to the confused younger men in the room. Out of the three men still out of the loop, only one of the twins' ears twitched at what Mori revealed and he elbowed his brother before whispering in his ear.

"Yeah!" Hunny exclaimed. "And because they were so kind, we invited them to join us this morning." What Hunny didn't say to the others was that he had texted Kyoya the night before, asking if they could have Beatrice make the sweets for the Host club from that point forwards. Already on-board with the idea that it would save money to have the sweets made at school, seeing Hunny eat a healthy, low-budget snack sealed the deal for Kyoya as he went to work typing on his computer. By the time school got out that day, Bea would be offered a way to make extra money in an after-school "job" with the Host Club.

"So _this_ is the infamous Host Club," Melody said, entering the room. "Why is this called a 'music room' if there are no instruments?" She asked as she snooped around. "Moreover, why is there a full kitchen in what is _supposed_ to be a 'music room'?" she asked after opening one of the doors.

"Kitchen?" Bea chirped perking up from her seat next to Hunny. Before anyone knew what had happened, Bea had already crossed the room and entered the expansive on-suite kitchen. "It's fully stocked!" they heard her squeak happily from within.

"And she's hugging a mixer," Melody grumbled as she closed the door, leaving her best friend to have some alone time with the kitchenware. Before she knew what was happening, Melody was already being circled by twin red-heads. "Why are they circling me like hawks?!" she asked no one in particular.

"Our mother's a fashion designer," one with a lower, gravely voice started, with a smirk.

"And we totally love your uniform," the higher-pitched one continued.

"We just wonder if this one is in dress-code!" They finished together beaming, referring to her outlandish outfit the day before.

Melody was dressed in her custom-made uniform. In more of the style of the male uniform, her fitted blue blazer had elbow length sleeves and a white button-up, collared shirt beneath. The uniform had come with gray socks and a flowing black skirt that ended just above her knees. Never one to follow the norm, Melody had snazzed up her uniform by wearing a knee-length Ouran blue ruffled skirt that peeked out from underneath her black skirt, making it appear fuller, much like the other female uniforms, yet still fun to wear and see. Instead of the female red bow, she insisted on wearing the male tie outside of her jacket, much like a long necklace.

"I just had the Chairman approve it. He liked it so much that he almost decided to change all of the female uniforms, but I reminded him of the high cost of doing that now and he agreed it was probably not in the school's interest anyway since most of the female students like those yellow monstrosities," Melody replied to their jab with a smile. "And my question stands on the instruments," she addressed the others in the room.

"Well we do have a grand piano," Kyoya smiled over his computer.

"Of course, my princess!" Tamaki added with flourish as he pulled back a curtain to reveal a lovely grand piano. "Please allow me to play for you," he said as he took a seat. Expecting the classical music Tamaki was known to play, all of the hosts closed their eyes in expectation of Mozart, but were surprised when they heard a more modern song being played. Looking over at the piano, they were all surprised to see Melody had crossed the room and was happily playing at the bench as Tamaki was becoming intimately acquainted with the wall as he had been flung into it.

"I see Melody has found the piano," Bea said as she exited the kitchen carrying a tray of fruit and yogurt tarts. "I hope you don't mind, but I felt bad that we had interrupted your meeting this morning so I whipped up some breakfast for all of you. It's just some sliced strawberries and yogurt in a graham cracker crust that I toasted and caramelized with a torch, but I also made some coffee and tea in apology for our disturbance," she explained as she lay out the simple spread.

After tasting her sweet pastries, all of the hosts started hounding Kyoya to "hire" her at once. Kyoya sighed. Apparently, Bea would be asked to cook for the Host club far sooner than after-school. Getting up from his computer, Kyoya pulled Bea aside. "Ms. Dewitt, would you like to-"

"No." Melody said in a matter-of-fact tone, materializing next to her friend. "She is _not_ joining the Host Club as your slave like Haruhi."

Kyoya blinked, "I never said she would be a slave to us. We are planning on compensating her."

"She doesn't need that!" Melody insisted. "We both are here on full scholarship and she has a job in the kitchens to help us pay rent on our apartment. Use that and the money from my company and we are more than taken care of."

"There is no need to be defensive," Kyoya said, trying to bring the situation back in the club's favor. "There is nothing wrong in needing more money."

"Defensive? Needing money? At least everything we have, we earned through our own accomplishments. Unlike you, we didn't have _daddy_ paying for everything. I built my own company from scratch when I was 16 and now, almost two years later, it's internationally known. Unlike you, who's struggling just to get d_addy's_ approval to become heir of d_addy's_ company, I actually went out and made a name for myself," Melody snarled at him, her dark aura seeping out.

"Excuse me?" Kyoya asked, his own dark aura quickly joining hers in darkening the room that sunny morning.

Bea quickly tried to step in, "Mel, I really think that-"

"I did a background check on all of you last night," Melody replied to Kyoya, ignoring her best friend. "Seems like you have a lot of work ahead of you if you want to outshine your older brothers to become heir."

Quickly realizing she was taking it too far, Bea stepped in and barked at her friend. "Melody, this doesn't involve you. It's my decision whether or not I join the Host club."

Rounding on her best friend, Melody exclaimed in shock, "What?"

In a calmer tone, Bea continued, "I appreciate your concern, but I don't want to have to rely on you all the time. While we don't _need_ the money," she said looking at Kyoya for a moment, "it would be nice to have a little extra for a rainy day. Also I've been thinking about joining a club after school. Why can't it be the Host club?"

"But what merit is there in the Host Club?" Melody responded. "What do they even do?"

"It is the job of the Host Club to make every girl happy!" Tamaki inserted, joining the conversation.

"By showering girls with flowery words and false promises?" Haruhi asked. "I just don't get it."

"Me either," Melody continued. "I can appreciate you wanting to join a club, but do you really want to join this one just because they offered to pay you? It's a club based on a bunch of guys shamelessly flirting with the girls here."

"Who are you to judge on flirting?" Bea fired back. "You do it _all the time_ to make connections for Catchya Music." Kyoya raised his eyebrows at this. "Besides, I think it could be fun to be in a club with Haruhi. She owes a debt to this club, and I think it could be fun."

"Fine," Melody said. "Do whatever you want. Be a host. Make their food. I don't care. Just don't come crying to me if you find out you hate it. Class is going to start soon. Mitsukuni, would you mind walking with me to class?" she asked as she threw her book bag over her shoulder.

"Sure Mel-chan! Takashi, you coming?" Hunny chirped, as he grabbed his belongings. Mori shook his head as he placed his hand on Bea's shoulder.

"I'll walk Beatrice and Haruhi to class," he said.

"Thank you Mori-sempai," Bea with a half-smile, still sad about her argument with Melody. Haruhi nodded in agreement

The five students got ready and left the rest of the occupants in the 3rd Music room in shock as they headed to their classes.

"Did someone really just attack the Shadow King?" Tamaki asked the twins in shock as they started gathering their belongings for class as Kyoya went back to typing on his computer, having his first period off as a study hall.

"Forget that!" Hikaru started. "Did you just hear Mori-sempai speak?"

"That was like a full sentence!" Kaoru exclaimed as they also left the club room to head off to their second day of school.

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**Please Favorite, Follow, and Review!**


	6. Chapter 6

The morning passed in a state of relative calm until lunchtime, when goodness fled the world and all hell broke loose. The host club was gathered at their table, trying to understand their new state of "normal". The twins and Tamaki were discussing new cosplays for this school year (pre-approved by Kyoya) while trying to ignore the tension in the air. Mori was trying to not be too obvious in staring at the blushing girl behind the counter as Honey was smirking in understanding at his cousin. He knew he was planning on meddling in his cousin's love life, especially when he so obviously liked Bea but had too much loyalty to his his family and 'honor' do anything about it. The person who he planned on having be his future accomplice was none other than the girl currently wreaking havoc on the resident Shadow King's patience and mind. Melody was practically dancing around, twirling, flirting, and showing off her new outfit to everyone immediately surrounding the table the host club was residing at, while intentionally ignoring them.

After their confrontation earlier, Kyoya had spent the morning trying to dig up anything he could on Melody. Frustratingly, all of her files were expertly sealed and in her own personal property along with Beatrice's paperwork since the girls became emancipated minors. The only thing he could find on the shameless flirt dancing around his patience was that all records of hers seemed to become top-secret at the same time her step-father was thrown in jail. Taking a break from the frustrating mystery, Kyoya was currently working on the club's budget and finances for this semester on his laptop when he felt another presence pop up behind him. After inhaling a whiff of her perfume, he internally groaned while externally putting on his best host's smile.

"You know, if you decrease the budget for cosplay by 5%, and transfer that money to advertising, you could have a thousand dollars extra here, and two thousand extra there while increasing your outreach," Melody's voice appeared right by his ear as her long, slender finger pointed at different sections of the screen. "Not to mention all of the overspending you seem to be doing in terms of groceries. What, do you import sugar from Morocco? I mean seriously!" Melody leaned on the back of his chair as she looked over his shoulder. "Not to mention, you forgot to carry the one here... And it's an automated program, so I have no idea how you were able to mess that up! Plus, you're only reaching out to half of your possible clientele. Have you ever considered having girls host men?"

As she spoke, Kyoya could not help as his smile disappeared and tick marks appeared above his head. The hosts all sensed as his demon aura started to appear and looked up to see him sitting stiffly at his laptop as Melody was practically draped over his shoulders. Sensing the upcoming danger in the conversation, Beatrice had started to make her way to the table, only to make a U-turn to escape as soon as she heard Kyoya ask Mel in a dark tone "Excuse me?"

"Men!" Tamaki exclaimed with a flourish, gaining the attention of everyone in the surrounding area, including the two fighting teens. "The Hosts need to have a meeting in the club room. Now." In more hushed tones, he told the surrounding men who to grab/drag to the Music Room as Kyoya and Melody glared at each other, silently daring the other to continue. Mori swept a fleeing Bea up in one arm as he collected and carried their bags back to the group in the other. Bea was too surprised to do anything but blush and babble incoherently as she _tried_ to ask him to put her down.

Honey couldn't help but giggling in amusement as Mori entrusted Bea into his care. "Come on Bea-chan! Let's go to the clubroom!" Hunny said cheerfully as he dragged a confused Bea out of the cafeteria. The twins left to go grab Haruhi from the classroom as Mori and Tamaki assessed the current situation. Despite their normally professional demeanors, Kyoya and Melody were having a staredown that looked like they were about to go after eachother's throats. Mori made the decision to grab and carry Melody out by her collar before she could attack Kyoya, leaving Tamaki to take care of the Demon Lord of the Host Club. Fortuneatly for him, Kyoya had enough sense to pack up his bag and follow his friends to the clubroom.

By the time Kyoya and Tamaki joined the others, Melody had snapped in anger as Bea, Mori, and Honey tried to calm her. Haruhi's meal had been interrupted and the twins (wiser than they looked) knew better than to be egging Melody on, both focused their energy on trying to bother the new natural host as she ate at one of the couches.

"Haruhi, be sure not to leave any crumbs on the couches, would you?" Kyoya said as he walked in, a dark aura surrounding him as he faced off Melody in what Honey knew would be the first of many memorable arguments.

"Did you have a problem with something I said pretty boy? Or were you too busy looking up our files to think of a retort?" Melody practically snarled at Kyoya.

"Wait!" Bea snapped, causing everyone to go silent as the girl who would soon be known as the sweet hostess took on a demeanor too close to Melody's for anyone's comfort. "He did _WHAT_?!"

"If you have information on me, why shouldn't I have information on you?" Kyoya countered.

"How much do you know?" Bea asked feverishly much to everyone's surprise.

"It doesn't matter what he does or doesn't know Bea. Everything important is sealed, so if he opens them, he's breaking a law," Melody quietly comforted her friend. Louder, she turned back to Kyoya, "However, I'm more curious about those numbers. Did you find fault in what I said?"

"You can't just bring something up like that and then drop it Mel!" Bea exclaimed.

"I didn't find fault in what you said, I'm just curious what made you think you could look at my classified documents when I can't look at yours," Kyoya calmly replied to Melody.

"Am I being ignored?" a still upset Bea exclaimed.

"I hardly think a club budget compares to the security of government-sealed documents, _Kyoya_!" Melody replied heatedly.

"What made you think I'd allow you to call me by my first name, _Melody_?" Kyoya replied with a glare.

"Well if I'm being ignored anyway, I might as well tell you now that I'm going on a date with Mori-sempai this Saturday so you'll need to feed yourself!" Bea exclaimed.

"WHAT?!" Honey leapt up. This was not expected. He couldn't believe his cousin had actually asked his crush out. "When did this happen? Takashi, are you abandoning me?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HARUHI'S A GIRL?" Hikaru exclaimed from across the room.

At this, everything dissolved into a mass panic/fight. For some reason or another, Melody and Kyoya were arguing about sealed files and club budgets as Bea tried to inject herself into their fight because she and Mel hadn't had their fight earlier. Honey was giving Mori the second degree about what happened with Bea as Mori tried to pay attention to the others' arguments. The twins were teasing a beet-red Tamaki who was babbling nonsense about Haruhi being a cross-dresser while waving his arms in wild and grand gestures. Haruhi just sat there, her sandwich halfway between the plate and her mouth, staring dumbfounded at the chaos before her.

"Alright, ENOUGH!" Haruhi screamed as she dropped her sandwich and stood up to glare at everyone. "This is getting insane! Melody! Are you seriously trying to cause fights just for the sake of causing fights? Honestly! And Bea! I know why you're worried about them finding out about what happened, but do you really think these guys can do anything to unseal those files? From what you said, the freaking Pentagon wouldn't be able to open them without your permission, let alone a few damn rich bastards!"

Everyone was taken aback at her outburst, but Kyoya was the first to compose himself. "Haruhi, do you really think you should talk about us like that when you still owe us 8 million yen?" he asked menacingly.

"And _you_!" Haruhi spun on Kyoya, "Could you not threaten someone for _5 minutes_?! I get that we aren't as rich as you all, but you've been nothing but extremely condescending since we met. Yes, I owe you guys money. Yes, _some_ 'commoners' don't repay their debts. But I'm not like them! My parents raised me right! You don't need to start every conversation with me by reminding me that I broke an overpriced flower pot!" By the time she was done, she was practically panting in anger. Kyoya raised his eyebrows in surprise, but didn't say anything as Haruhi turned on the two cousins. "Honey-sempai, do you really think Mori-sempai would abandon you forever to go on a date with the girl he can never take his eyes off of? And Mori-sempai, seriously, it's getting weirdly creepy for the rest of us!" she reprimanded, effectively making Mori and Bea blush bright red. "And you three," she turned to the twins and Tamaki, "Can you not be busybodies for the sake of seeking attention for more than two seconds? Yes, I'm a girl, but I don't think that really matters! What does matter is what's on the inside more than the outside. Now, we've known each other for less than a week and we've dissolved into this chaos. If we're all going to be in a club together, we need to learn to get along!"

"What? What do you mean we're all going to be in a club together?" Hikaru questioned. "What about Melody-sempai?"

"Melody's obviously harassing Kyoya-sempai about the budget because she plans on joining the club," Haruhi deadpanned. At this, everyone froze and turned to stare at Melody.

"Are you?" Bea asked in surprise and curiosity.

"Well... The club obviously needs me if _Kyoya_ can't figure numbers out in an automated program," Melody said defensively.

"Oh for goodness sake, Mel!" Bea reprimanded. "What did Haruhi just say about causing fights for the sake of causing fights?"

"She said I was causing fights for the sake of causing fights," Melody replied snappily. "She never said anything about me stopping."

"It. Was. _IMPLIED_!" Bea shouted. "Honestly! Would it kill you to be honest with me for once? You spend all of this time and resources trying to protect me, when really all you do is make me worry about you! Instead of you taking care of me, I have to watch you like a hawk to make sure you get proper nutrition and enough rest. You'd work yourself to death if I didn't stop you! Do you have any idea how that makes me feel to watch you do that to yourself? Do you even care? There's a difference between 'passion for your craft' and 'insanity' Mel, and you spend all of your time dancing back and forth between the two." By the time she was done, there were tears of frustration running down her face.

Mori instinctively tried to walk towards her, but Haruhi stopped him, shaking her head, "Let them finish."

"Like you even notice since we've gotten here! I thought we moved here so you could study under a Japanese culinary master, not to frolic around with a _host club_!" Melody shouted back. "I'm willing to move anywhere to support you in your dreams, but we just moved halfway around the world and you already seem to be abandoning the main reason we moved here!"

"I don't want to live my life always focused on work, Mel! I want to enjoy my time here and make friends! I'm not abandoning the reason we came here, I'm just trying to enjoy school life for once! The Host club seems like a great way to do that!" Bea defended. "I mean look at us," she practically chuckled, as tears still slid down her face. "We're screaming at each other in the middle of a music room and neither of us are screaming the lyrics from a musical. Did you _ever_ think we'd do something like that at this school? You're so focused on work all the time, but you're only 17! I'm 15! The government may see us as registered adults, but we are still kids! I know what you're worried about, but we need to have fun at some point, right?"

At this, Melody didn't know how to respond. Her friend wasn't wrong and she realized that she _had_ been spending too much energy focused on trying to act like an adult and properly run her company. But she wasn't only a CEO; she was a teenager. Releasing the tension from her body, she smiled at her best friend. "So what do you propose we sing then?"

At this, Bea laughed and ran to hug her friend. She knew that their journey wasn't easy and that it was far from over, but she knew they'd make it through any obstacle together.

"So what do you say guys? Can I join the club?"

The hosts all shared a look as they looked at the three girls in their presence and knew their lives would never be the same.

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**So, we know that we haven't updated in a while... A LONG while, but now that I (CrazyKitCat) have quit my job, I can focus on writing more. And now that I can effectively sit and "bother" the co-writer/muse for this story for hours on end at _her_ job, we will hopefully have at least one update a week!**

**Thanks a lot for reading! Please let us know what you think!**


	7. Chapter 7

**THE JOB OF A HIGH SCHOOL HOST: PART 1**

**Hello. Is it me you're looking for? Oh! Or were you looking for the chapter? Sorry... That's lower... Or not written yet! Psyche!**

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**Cat's warm-up: Scene: The two girls sat in a dorm lobby. One was on her phone, the other on her computer. The first girl just left, leaving her friend alone in the dorm. The TV was on in the room behind her. She could hear, but not see what was playing. Deciding to narrate everything around her, the girl was typing to her her hands warmed up. The two girls are planning on writing the seventh chapter of their faux-story together, but have no idea where to start. The second girl's phone just vibrated in her back pocket. She just checked it, but it was just a game alert. Her phone case has the Eiffel Tower and a large rose. The rose is larger than the base of the building. Weird. The second girl just remembered she was supposed to call her grandmother again this evening, but forgot when she started to crochet. Does this sound like a creepy narrative of a horror story to anyone else? Someone please make me stop. In other news, Emily tore apart her nail in class today. Literally... The entire middle portion of her nail is gone... She found it later in the piece of jewelry she was working on (we're training to be jewelers). Why am I telling you all this? Because the world needs to know that what we do isn't easy. You may not realize it but jewelry-making is hard... Plus she's just a klutz! (said the hypocrite). And now she's trying to eat a tamale with the corn husk still on... Forget the part about me being a hypocrite... It is now invalid. This is getting depressing... Goodbye.**

**P.S. Alyssa (Emily's boss) is amazing and gave us tamales... So I'm deciding to dedicate this chapter to her.**

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The final bell rang, announcing the end of the day. Haruhi grimaced as she paused to close her textbooks in the library. Rushing to the club room, Haruhi muttered to herself, "I'm never going to hear the end of it I'm late." It had been a whole week since "the fight" the previous Tuesday after which, she and the other girls had joined the club as official members. Taking a moment to calm her heartrate as she reached the clubroom, Haruhi took a breath and pushed the doors to Music Room 3 open.

She opened the door and the whole place was decked out like a tropical paradise. Paradise. _Pfft_. More like tropical hell... What the hell was going on?

"What's this? Where am I?"

"Welcome," the hosts greeted from an obviously choreographed group pose, all wearing very revealing Bali-themed outfits.

_Can you see this from heaven mom? This is the club I was forced to join._

"You finally made it Haruhi. You were so late," the twins chorused in a bored, yet reprimanding tone.

Pulling out her school planner just to be sure, Haruhi grumbled, "I may be wrong, but my calendar says it's still early spring."

"Cuddling under the kotatsu fearing the cold is nonsense! And besides, the heating system we have is... the best!" Tamaki said with a flourish after a pause. Haruhi visibly grimaced.

Obviously, still egotistically-bruised from the fight the previous week, Kyoya asked "Do you have a problem with the way we run our club, Haruhi? Be careful what you say, you owe us 8 million yen, remember?"

At the mention of her debt, Haruhi flinched.

Ignoring (or just not noticing the exchange between Kyoya and Haruhi) Tamaki continued with his earlier monologue. "Gentlemen don't bundle up in bulky clothing. It may be chilly early spring out there in the real world, but here at the club we want to surprise our chilly little kittens with a warm paradise." As he talked, Tamaki had moved to wrap an arm around the sulking Haruhi. "Oh yes! We've turned this place into Nirvana. A balmy tropical island of everlasting summer!"

"That's funny, cause I feel a massive chill right now," Haruhi said from under his arm as he sparkled happily.

"You should _really_ get off of her Tamaki-chan," Melody popped up beside them with a smirk. "How else will she be able to get changed?"

When Haruhi looked at her friend, she noticed that Melody was dressed in a style very similar to the gentlemen surrounding her. Since revealing skin seemed to be the theme of today, Melody's curled hair was tied up in a high ponytail that hung down to the middle of her back. Her long skirt flowed around her legs as she moved and her top was... very revealing to say the least. Her neck adorned with gold jewelry similar to what the other hosts wore-Haruhi briefly wondered if it was costume jewelry or real-and her chest was covered in a top nearly identical to what Disney's Princess Jasmine wore. A modest yet revealing blue-green bikini top was accompanied by a lighter sash, allowing her toned midsection and attractive curves to be shown off.

"I am _not _wearing that," Haruhi deadpanned.

"Of course not," Melody smirked. "I am."

"Not all of the costumes are the same, Haruhi," Beatrice materialized beside her, dressed very differently than her smirking counterpart. She was dressed in a very attractive purple sundress that complimented her hair and figure. The upper section was a darker purple that hugged her body like a glove, but when the dress met her waist where a decorative gold belt sat, it flowed out like Melody's skirt and the color progressively faded to white in the ombre style. The straps of her dress were made of gold links similar in style to the jewelry and her wrists had several matching bangles. Her hair was tied up in a fancy bun that had gold ribbons woven in. At second glance, Haruhi noticed that Melody had similar strands woven into her hair.

"Do neither of you find this ridiculous?" Haruhi asked, taking a brief moment to notice that Tamaki had disappeared from her side when the two girls appeared. The twins were "getting into character" as they hung off of each other and Honey was perched on Mori's shoulders as he ran them around the room. Kyoya had moved to his seat and was typing on his laptop and Tamaki had vanished.

"Not really," Bea smiled. "We loved to go cosplaying in America when we had the chance. It's not too different from Halloween."

"Haruhi! I got your outfit for you!" Tamaki announced. The three girls turned to see the most ridiculous Bali-princess styled outfit ever.

"I stand corrected," Bea said in surprise as Haruhi's jaw dropped and Melody doubled over in unconstrained mirth. "That _is _ridiculous."

"We can match!" Tamaki said excitedly. At this, Melody fell to the floor in laughter.

"No thank you, senpai," Haruhi deadpanned.

"But Haruhi-" Tamaki started, only to be cut off.

"How am I supposed to conceal my gender if I'm dressed in _that_?" Haruhi continued. "I'll just wear my uniform, thank you."

"But-but... Everyone is supposed to wear cosplay!" Tamaki wailed.

"No," Haruhi said again, not leaving any room for debate.

"Kyoya!" Tamaki wailed, hoping his best friend and the club's vice president would support him.

"She has a point Tamaki," Kyoya said as he glanced up from his laptop, pushing his glasses up his nose to create a glare. "It's not her fault that you failed to provide a proper cosplay outfit for her."

At this, Tamaki moved to go pout in his corner of woe.

Since the club had opened with its three newest members, everyone knew where their stations were and started moving to get ready for the doors to open. Haruhi and Melody helped Beatrice make and serve the tea and newly popular commoners coffee. There were 5 stations: shared ones for Mori and Honey, and the twins, and individual ones for Kyoya, Tamaki, and Haruhi. Melody sat at the piano where she played music during club hours and Beatrice would walk around serving all of the guests cakes and beverages from her tea cart. After adding the three girls to the club, the group decided to allow Haruhi to continue acting as a male host to pay off her debt while Melody and Beatrice would serve as the club's entertainment and chef.

"So, we've been 'observing' you guys for the past week and a half," Melody started, "But does the host club actually do anything other than flatter girls with empty promises?"

"Only those with excellent social standing and filthy rich families are allowed to spend their time here at the elite private school, Ouran Academy," Tamaki explained. "The Ouran Host Club is where the school's handsomest boys with too much time on their hands entertain young ladies who also have way too much time on their hands. Just think of it as Ouran Academy's elegant playground for the super rich and beautiful."

After his explanation, everyone sweat-dropped.

"Am I the only one who wants to punch him after that?" Melody's eye twitched. Haruhi and Beatrice nodded their heads in agreement.

"Now, now," Kyoya said with a glare of his glasses, internally pleased that Melody was irritated, "It's time to open the doors for the ladies." At his cue, everyone got into position as the doors opened, revealing the first customers of the day.

* * *

"What heartlessness. Even with my lustrous skin shining like brilliant ivory, exposed by my Balinese king outfit, I'm no more than a slave before my goddess. I kneel before you and swear my loyalty," Tamaki wooed a girl who whispered his name in response. Haruhi just gave him the side-eye as she served the ladies their tea. The other ladies at the table had hearts in their eyes as they admired how lucky Tamaki's current victim... sorry, princess was. "Oh yes," Tamaki said, straightening up as if he had only just remembered something important. "I forgot to mention to you ladies: next week the Ouran host club is sponsoring a party."

Haruhi had been walking away, but paused and turned around at his words. "We're throwing a party?"

"What kind of party is it going to be?" Melody asked from across the room at the piano bench.

"Is it going to be formal?" Bea added in as she served Kyoya's customers tea.

"Yes, in fact we've rented the school's largest hall," Hikaru answered.

"It's the perfect place for dancing," Kaoru weighed in.

"But I really wanted to spend some more time with you Kaoru," Hikaru lifted his brother's chin as he stood up, staring down into his brother's eyes.

"Don't be upset Hikaru," Kaoru joined in on their act. "I know exactly how you feel."

"The guests seem to be even more worked up than they usually are," Haruhi observed as two girls sitting at the twins' table started excitedly babbling incoherently.

"Showing some skin proves popular with the ladies," Kyoya replied from next to her as he wrote in his notebook.

"So are you the one who came up with this tropical paradise idea?" Haruhi asked as she stared at everything happening before her.

"I have no decision making authority," Kyoya replied. "As you know, all of the club's policies have been laid out by the club's king, Tamaki. But," He said as he closed his notebook to push his glasses up with a smile. "I guess there's no harm in admitting to slipping a Bali photo book into his desk."

A light bulb went off in Haruhi's head. _So he's the real mastermind behind the operation... I really should have realized that sooner._

"Ta-da!" Honey announced with a flourish as the girls started to compliment how cute he was. "Hi ladies, I love these Balinese flowers! We had them flown in!"

Overhearing this, Melody sat up straight and glanced over her shoulder at Kyoya with a raised eyebrow. "Really?!" she mouthed in irritation, her fingers never stopping as they flew across the piano keys as if they had a mind of their own. Since joining the club, she and Kyoya worked together on the club's budget (by Tamaki's demands, of course). They both knew he thought that forcing them to work together would make them get along, but so far all it had accomplished was getting the two even more annoyed at each other as they stayed late nightly to fix and adjust the club's budget. She _thought_ they had discussed and agreed on things together, but apparently Kyoya still wasn't playing nice.

"Takashi!" Honey got hopped over to his cousin as he walked by and climbed his cousin's tall frame before throwing a lei over his head. "There! We match!" Honey gushed as he hugged his cousin's neck, effectively making the ladies swoon.

Noticing Bea walk by with her cart, Takashi reached out to grab her wrist. Surprised, she looked up into his eyes with her brown eyes large in confusion. Taking one of the flowers from the table, Mori deftly added it to her hair so that it looked like it was tucked over her ear. "Yeah, we do," he replied to his cousin revealing a smile so slight only Bea and Honey noticed. If the ladies had been swooning before, they were now a puddle of goo at the sight of Mori's softer side, all imagining what it would be like if the stoic man were their boyfriend. But they knew he was taken by the blushing shorter girl.

After "the fight" the previous week, during which Bea revealed Mori and she were planning on going on a date, the group (primarily Melody) had grilled the two extensively about what was going on. While blushing a deep red that rivaled the color of ripe tomatoes, Bea revealed that Mori had asked her out on the night he and Honey had brought Haruhi home. She (obviously) had said yes. After finding an instant and undeniable connection on their date that weekend, Mori invited Bea to his house that Sunday for brunch in order to introduce her to his parents as his girlfriend. All of Bea's nerves about meeting the matriarch and patriarch of the Morinozuka family turned out to be for naught as they whole-heartedly gave their approval, just wanting their son to be happy. After gaining his parents approval, they decided that they didn't want to hide their relationship and agreed to announce to the club and the ladies that Mori was off the market. Seeing how happy Mori and Bea were, the hosts agreed and announced it to the ladies at the end of the club time on Monday. Much to everyone's surprise, the guests were more than supportive of their budding relationship and begged Mori to continue hosting with his cousin so they could watch the new couple interact and stoke their flames of Moe.

_I'm still confused by those three_, Haruhi thought as she sat down with her guests.

"Haruhi?" one of her guests brought her attention back to her guests. "Aren't you going to wear a tropical costume like the other boys?"

"I'd like to see that!" Another girl agreed.

"W-well n-no. I-I just don't think it's appropriate to wear anything but early spring attire in early spring, you know?" she replied with a smile.

"Wow Haruhi! You're really faithful to the seasons, aren't you?" the first girl admired.

"I think that's great!" The second girl added. "I hope we're lucky enough that the cherry blossoms are in full bloom on the night of the party!"

"The two of us dancing under the cherry blossoms," the third girl added wistfully. "It's so dreamy!"

"You really think so?" Haruhi asked with doubt and surprise before smiling warmly. "You know ladies, I think you're cute when you dream like that." Her comment was very effective in making all the girls blush.

"I hate to interrupt," a voice said over Haruhi's shoulder, "but I believe it's time for the hosts to switch clients."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Haruhi apologized. "You must be my next appointment, Ms. uh..."

"My name's Kanako," the young lady smiled. "Kanako Suzuzaki. You're even cuter than I expected," she smiled as she cupped Haruhi's chin. "I've decided.. From now on, you're going to be my new favorite host, Haruhi."

* * *

Later that afternoon after the club had closed its doors to the princesses, the host club (sans Tamaki) gathered around Kyoya's and Melody's work table to continue making preparations for the party.

"I can't take this anymore," Tamaki grumbled as he slurped cup ramen from a different table by the window.

"Hey boss!" Hikaru called from the table the rest of the club was gathered around. "Why don't you stop eating that commoner's ramen and come over here to help us with the party planning?"

"Does it really bother you that Princess Kazuka has taken a liking to Haruhi?" Kaoru questioned from beside his brother.

"He shouldn't be surprised," Kyoya said as he kept typing on his laptop. "She's had the illness for a while now, hasn't she?"

"What illness?" Haruhi asked.

"She's got the host-hopping disease," Hikaru answered.

"A.K.A. The never going with the same boy twice disease," Kaoru elaborated.

"Usually our customers choose a favorite host and see them regularly," Kyoya explained. "However, Princess Kanako tends to change her favorites on a regular basis."

"That's right!" Honey weighed in. "Because before she chose you, she was with Tama-chan!"

"Oh," Haruhi said, finally understanding the situation. "So he's upset because I took her from him?"

"Shut up!" Tamaki roared. "I couldn't care less! I'm running out of patience!" He continued dramatically. "Haruhi, it's time you started dressing like a girl!"

"Huh?" Haruhi was confused.

"Well _that_ was an effective try at changing the topic from himself," Melody observed in a distracted tone as she kept typing on her own laptop.

Bea covered her mouth to try to hide her amusement as a chuckle escaped. Mori let out a tiny smile of his own (meaning it was indiscernible to everyone but his cousin and his girlfriend) as he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her into his side.

"I just don't understand how you could be so popular with the ladies when you, yourself are a lady!" Tamaki wailed as he upped his dramatics. "No one in the entire school knows except for those of us here!"

"Yeah," Hikaru added, "She opted out of taking gym classes."

"And the attendance numbers are all mixed together, so no one can tell," Kaoru added as Tamaki shot off to grab a large chest labeled "King's private property" before bringing it back to the center of the room.

"I've had enough Haruhi! Now you listen to Daddy!" he said as he pulled out a huge portrait from the little box as if he was Mary Poppins, before shoving it in her face. In the frame was an enlarged image of Haruhi's old ID photo. "Daddy wants you to go back to looking the way you used to!" he wailed as Haruhi angrily shouted at him to not enlarge her photos without her permission.

"The more I look at this picture, the more amazed I am," Hikaru started as he looked at the picture with the other male hosts, before turning to Haruhi. "How could this," he gestured to the portrait "become that?" he finished, gesturing at Haruhi.

"A week before school started, one of the boys in my neighborhood stuck gum in my hair. It's a real pain to get gum out of long hair, so I decided to cut it all off. I didn't care if I looked like a dude, you know?" Haruhi said as if it was the most logical and obvious response in the world.

"A girl should never refer to herself as a dude!" Tamaki screamed in her face. "Mama! Haruhi's using those dirty boy words again," he cried dramatically before sinking to the floor, face buried in his handkerchief.

"I'm sorry, but who's 'Mama'?" Hikaru asked.

Without missing a beat, Kyoya replied, "Based on club position, I'd assume it's me."

"You really should have seen it before Melody fixed it," Bea smiled at the memory of the day the girls had first met. "It literally looked like she had put a bowl over her head and used that as a template."

"Oh yeah," Melody said with a smile, also reminiscing as she leaned her chair back to balance on two legs. "I'm actually really proud of that. There was _not_ much left to work with and... No offense Haruhi... but it looked _awful_."

"Funny how when someone normally says to not take offense to something they say, the comment is usually very offensive," Haruhi gave her friends the side eye before letting out a small giggle. "Oh god... Do you remember my dad's reaction?" At this, all three girls dissolved into laughter.

"That was the day we moved here," Melody explained to the other hosts. "We were getting our key for the apartment when we heard him scream. Oh lord, it sounded as if he had seen a ghost or someone was attacking them."

"We ran up the stairs and into their apartment to find him hanging off of Haruhi as if a Dementor had just stolen his soul," Bea giggled. "After hearing him talk nonstop about how cute 'his precious daughter' was as he gave us a ride from the airport, we were so confused when we saw her."

"It looked so bad that I couldn't stand it, so I asked her to let me fix it as Bea made dinner for all of us. It took a while, but I was able to manage the cute longish-pixie cut you all are enjoying now," Melody smiled. "It took forever to get Ranka to stop crying on the ground... Kind of just like our illustrious king is doing now," she pointed at the club president with a smirk.

"Look, I don't see what you're crying about," Haruhi scolded him. "Working as a host, I can pay back my debt. It'll never happen if I'm just an errand boy," she reasoned.

"I hate to change the subject, but do you have any formal dancing experience?" Hikaru questioned. "You'll need it at the party."

"Uh...no? But the party doesn't have anything to do with my quota right? I'm not really interested in going to events, so can I please be excused?"

"Definitely not," Tamaki answered.

"You're going!" Melody and Beatrice cut her off. Both girls were as excited as the guests for the party. Melody loved music and dancing and Beatrice was not very different.

"A refined gentleman must know how to dance!" Tamaki explained as he slithered up next to Haruhi. "If you want to live the life of a host that badly, you're going to have to show us how far you're willing to go Haruhi. I order you to master dancing the waltz in one week! And you will demonstrate it for us at the party," he said as he spun around once on the balls of his feet. "Or I'll tell the entire school that you're a girl and knock you back down to errand boy."

_Well...shit._

* * *

**By the way, did anyone else notice that the hosts refer to Kanako by her name and by Kazuka? I re-watched it several times to be sure... I just assumed it was a way to combine her first and last name into a nickname and left it.**

**Hope you enjoyed. Please leave us a review to let us know what you think!**


	8. Chapter 8

**THE JOB OF A HIGH SCHOOL HOST: PART 2**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: We have an efficient plan to get this story cranked out now! You guys won't get an update next week since we're both going to be seeing our families for Thanksgiving. The same will hold true over Christmas break, but I promise I will be getting the meat of the writing down then so that we can have more frequent updates in the spring. We will be finishing the program and graduating soon next year, so we promise to have SOME real ending by then! Love you guys!**

* * *

After the club hours the following day, Haruhi was receiving dance lessons from Kanako Kazusazaki.

"Quick quick slow. Quick quick slow. Good work Haruhi," Kanako complimented Haruhi as they danced together. "Now on the slow, you should bring your feet together," she patiently instructed despite the fact that Mori and Honey were spinning in circles around their lesson. "Remember, the gentleman always leads. And make sure to look at the lady you're dancing with."

"Got it," Haruhi said with a confident tone, despite the confusion swirling through her head. As they danced, Tamaki sulked by the window, intentionally allowing the sun's rays to cast a melancholy shadow on his face. "Eh—uh—Wah!" Haruhi exclaimed as she lost her balance, knocking both her and Kanako to the floor. Blushing as she realized that she was accidentally straddling her partner, Haruhi vehemently apologized, "I'm so sorry Ms. Kazusazaki!"

"It's okay, Haruhi," Kanako smiled as she wrapped her arms around Haruhi's neck and pulled her down slightly, much to Haruhi's surprise as she let out a light gasp.

Trying to shake off the awkwardness, Haruhi scrambled to her feet, before extending a hand to Kanako. "Uh, can I help you up?"

Meanwhile, the twins moved over to Tamaki. "Why so gloomy boss?" they chorused their question.

"I bet it's because _he _wanted to be the one Haruhi practices with," Hikaru said to his brother.

"I think you may be right," Kaoru agreed. "But he's way too tall to stand in as a woman."

"Thank you so much for allowing me to practice with you," Haruhi thanked Kanako as she guided her to a table to serve her tea after their dance lesson. "I really appreciate it."

"Oh, no problem," Kanako replied with a smile as she used her handkerchief to dab at the sweat on her forehead. "I heard that you're not seeing any customers today so you can practice dancing. I'm glad I got to spend this time alone with you," she continued as she rested her chin on her folded hands. Haruhi—still not used to girls flirting with her—didn't know how to respond and chose to remain silent as Kyoya walked up next to her. "Oh! This is a new tea set, isn't it?" Kanako smiled happily as she glanced down at her cup, before bringing it closer to her face to examine it. "It's Genori," she said without a doubt.

"Genori?" Haruhi asked, confused.

"You have a keen eye mademoiselle," Kyoya complimented Kanako. "In fact, we just received them yesterday. We decided that it was about time for the club to upgrade its tea sets."

"I see," Kanako smiled as she admired the cup. "What a pretty color... Lovely," she smiled, subconsciously cradling the cup tighter as if it was cherished. Tamaki glanced up with a look mixed with surprise and realization.

"Are you kidding me?" Melody grumbled to Bea as she passed by the piano. "_You_ were the one who suggested that the tea sets were out of date and _I_ was the one who hunted down Suzushima to order some new sets. And now he takes all of the credit?"

"Leave it, Melody," Bea placed a calming hand on her friend's shoulder. "You can gripe at him later, but for now, how about you take a break? They aren't dancing anymore and you don't want to strain your hands." Smiling at her friend's thoughtfulness, Melody nodded and accepted the tea cup she was offered as she moved to read a book in the window nook. Kyoya noticed her wave and saw her motion that she was going to rest for a bit and nodded that it should be alright.

"You must really be into tableware, huh?" Haruhi observed Kanako with a smile. At this, Kanako immediately put down her cup as a blush spread across her cheeks.

"Not really! I mean no! Of course I'm not!" she said in vehement denial. "Whatever would give you that idea?" she asked nervously.

_She obviously knows a lot about it,_ Haruhi observed as Kanako giggled nervously. _Why would she lie?_

Haruhi's thought were distracted as the doors to the club room opened and a male voice called out, "Hello? I'm here with the new teacups you ordered!" Haruhi noticed that Kanako flinched slightly and inhaled sharply at the sound of the newcomer's voice.

"Ah, thank you very much," Kyoya moved over to greet the boy. "Every item that you've chosen for us has been extremely popular with the ladies. I'm quite impressed," he complimented.

"Well that's good to hear," the boy replied with a smile.

"So, do you sell tea sets?" Haruhi asked curiously as she moved over to join the two boys.

"No," the boy replied as Haruhi took the box he was carrying. "I'm just a regular student. Can't you tell by the uniform?"

After an almost indiscernible pause, Kanako started fake-laughing, "Oh Haruhi, you're so funny." At this, the three 'boys' turned to look at her. "I can't blame you for not knowing," she said as she turned in her chair to face them. "After all, he doesn't really _look_ like the heir to a first-class company."

"First-class company?" Haruhi asked as the air seemed to leave the newcomers lungs at the sight of Kanako.

"His family's business," Kyoya explained. "The Suzushima Trading Co. deals primarily in importing of tableware. They currently have the top market share in the country." Both he and Haruhi decided to pretend to not notice as Kanako and Suzushima stared into each other's eyes for a moment before Kanako broke the contact and looked down with a sad look on her face.

"Wow," Haruhi said amazed as she tried to bring attention off of the obviously forlorn Kanako.

"So, whenever something exceptional comes in, we've asked them to send it our way. He has a great eye for fine china... Don't you Suzushima?" Kyoya asked, bringing his classmate's attention back to them.

"You think? I've still got a lot to learn," he said modestly. "But thank you."

"Aren't you leaving next month to study abroad in England?" Kyoya asked. Haruhi noticed that Kanako seemed to only get more and more deflated as they talked becoming completely disheartened as Suzushima confirmed Kyoya's question.

"Yes, I am," Suzushima replied before turning to take his leave. "Well, I better go now," he said, opening and closing the door behind him, leaving Kanako staring into her tea cup.

"So, are you enjoying the host club?" Tamaki asked her gently as he leaned on the table. Kanako looked up in surprise.

"I get the feeling that you and that guy are kinda close," Haruhi observed as she joined them causing Kanako to briefly freak out and spin around.

"Don't be ridiculous! We hardly know each other!" Kanako denied loudly in a nervous tone. "What makes you say _that_, Haruhi?" Haruhi raised her eyebrow in confusion at the girl's reaction to her innocent observation as Kanako hurriedly gathered her things. "Now if you'll please excuse me," she finished nervously as she fled the club room. Both Haruhi and Tamaki watched her go, each with a different look on their face. Tamaki was obviously thinking about the situation as Haruhi wondered what she had said to make the girl leave like that. She didn't have long to wonder though before she heard Honey's voice call out her nickname behind her. She barely had time to brace herself—and the box of breakable items she was still holding—before she felt Honey launch himself in a surprise-attack and cling onto her back.

"Haru-chan!" Honey said happily as Haruhi panted, recovering. "Guess what? They do know each other! Suzushima is Kazuka-chan's fiance!"

"Kyoya," Tamaki called out to his best friend calmly. "How long have you known about this?"

"About the two of them being engaged?" Kyoya clarified. "Well, as you know, I conduct general searches on all of our customers," he continued as he pulled out the folder containing all of the information he had on the guests from under his arm. "The two of them were childhood friends. It seems that their engagement was arranged by their parents. I didn't think the information would benefit us, so I disregarded it." he finished as he turned to look at Tamaki with a blank expression.

"I see," Tamaki acknowledged, sweat-dropping and deflating slightly at his friend's response.

"Toru Suzushima," Kyoya read from the file where Kanako's and Toru's images were side-by-side with a bored tone. "Outstanding grades. Bare social status. He's ordinary-looking, but he's reliable. If I had to fault him for anything..."

"He doesn't have much presence," Hikaru filled in from behind Kyoya's left side.

"And he's faint-hearted," Kaoru finished from behind Kyoya's right.

"So, in other words... He's boring," Kyoya finished as he snapped the file shut in one hand.

_I had no idea they were so merciless toward other guys,_ Haruhi sweat-dropped.

"Suzushima is a good boy, right?" Honey observed from his new perch atop Mori's shoulders as he leaned on his cousin's head.

"Yeah," Mori replied, only slightly annoyed that his cousin's new position prevented him from being close to Bea.

"Alright everyone," Tamaki gathered everyone's attention to him at the rare serious tone in his voice. "We'll have to work on our strategy."

"Which one?" everyone questioned.

"Men," Tamaki looked up, his usual sparkle and flourish back. "It is our responsibility as members of the elite Ouran host club to make every girl happy!"

* * *

Hours later, found Ouran Academy wrapped in the blanket of night and abandoned except for two students in Music Room 3, still burning the midnight oil.

"Are you kidding Kyoya?! You don't really think that only six—seven if you include Haruhi—guys are enough to dance with the two or three hundred girls expected to attend the party, do you?" Melody argued with her kohai. "I know I haven't been here as long as you, but some things are just impossible! Besides, Mori even said he was only interested in dancing with Beatrice. I know we were able to get him to agree to dance with other ladies, but we only got him to agree on the condition that half of his time be spent with his girlfriend!"

All of the other members of the Ouran host club had gone home hours ago, leaving the party planning to Kyoya and Melody. The only problem was that everyone had very different opinions on how the party should be held and had left Melody and Kyoya in charge of making all of their ideas become reality. Honey wanted fancy cakes from France for the party, so they had requested and reserved the time of a high end patisserie to attend and bake. Mori wanted to take Bea as his date, and they had found a compromise to allow him to spend time with her as well as actually host. The twins had wanted to make the entire party a masquerade ball, but they had finally agreed to the arguments that since the party was so last minute to the guests, most young ladies wouldn't have a chance to get costumes. They had been appeased by being told they could design and create the dresses for Melody and Bea to wear at the party. Bea wanted to enjoy the evening, so they gave her the night off of catering duties and hired a chef to make hors d'oeuvres for the guests. All of that had already been taken care of and the only struggle left was the disagreement between Tamaki and Melody.

Melody had "made the mistake" of suggesting that the host club invite other male students to attend the party as well as the usual guests of the host club. The suggestion had barely left her mouth when Tamaki had flown off the handle, rejecting even the concept of the idea. Melody had tried to reason with him that more men would be required to attend to compensate for the vast difference in numbers of seven boys versus hundreds of girls, but he refused to listen. He kept arguing that since the host club was hosting the party, there was an expectation that only the most handsome men in the school would be attending. Melody had tried to argue that even if every host only danced once with every girl—as well as factoring in that no one could dance nonstop for hours on end—there would still be some young ladies at the end of the evening who would never get a chance to dance with a host. She had argued that if it was a party, it should be enjoyable for everyone, but Tamaki would hear none of the idea that they open the party for the entire high school.

"You know that I actually agree with you, Melody," Kyoya sighed as he leaned back in his chair, absentmindedly running a hand through his hair before taking off his glasses to rub his strained eyes. "But Tamaki would never go for it. You're a smart girl, you know that once he has an idea in his head, there's no stopping him!"

"That's true," Melody consented as she held out her hand for Kyoya to hand her his glasses for her to absentmindedly polish as they both considered what to do. Over the past two (almost three) weeks spent staying late in the club room discussing the deep intricacies of the club's budget, Kyoya and Melody had developed a sort of understanding for each other. Neither would admit it—or ever show it in front of others—but Tamaki's plan to force them to work together was actually beginning to work and they had reached a sort of agreed middle ground that they could work together on. That was, they both blamed Tamaki if something wasn't working in their favor. That trick worked almost every time.

In all seriousness though, Melody and Kyoya were actually surprised at how well they worked together. They both had a first-hand knowledge about running businesses and they both knew how to budget and save money. Kyoya was aiming to become heir of the Ootori zabaitsu and Melody had founded and ran her own recording company. That stray thought reminded Melody of the work load she knew was piling up for Catchya Music, and she suppressed a groan. Quickly making a mental note to alert the school that she would need to take some time off soon to tackle that, but first, they needed to get through the party. As she absentmindedly cleaned Kyoya's glasses with her handkerchief, her mind ran through possibilities of ways to make everyone happy at the party.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, leaning forward and causing the front two legs of her chair to slam back down on the floor. _When did I lean the chair back?... No! Focus!_ "How about we make it a father-daughter dance? We invite the fathers of the ladies to attend as their escorts?"

"That might be a good idea," Kyoya considered, "One Tamaki might even agree to, but most of our guests' parents are business people whose schedules are booked weeks—if not months—in advance. It'd be too last minute of a notice for this party. I suspect at least half of the ladies would show up without their fathers and would feel jealous of or even look down upon the girls whose fathers would be able to attend after the last minute invitation."

"Yeah, that's a good point," Melody conceded as she handed Kyoya back his glasses so that she could pull up a file on her computer to jot the idea down on. "We'll put that idea down for later then. I don't want to completely reject it for the future, because think of how many business and political connections we could make..." Kyoya nodded in agreement.

The other thing that Kyoya and Melody shared was a mutual interest in ulterior motives and furthering their positions. The adults in the real world may view them both as "children" and would severely underestimate them, but they both had more cards in their hands than others assumed. Not to mention, they were always looking for even more cards while remembering that they wouldn't be young forever and would one day have those adults who looked down on them now as their subordinates.

"Well, what do _you_ suggest we do?" Melody asked as she finished typing. "We can't just have the hosts as the only men at the party."

"I don't know Melody," Kyoya sighed, "But we need to come up with _something_, especially if Tamaki wants to go through with this harebrained scheme of his."

"Ugh!" Melody lamented as she moved to bury her face in her arms. "Why does he have to be so _difficult_?! It's not like we can hire anyone, and apparently inviting other students is out of the question too..."

"Wait! Repeat what you just said," Kyoya stopped her, sitting up.

"Inviting students is out of the question?" Melody asked confused as she peeked up from her arms to look at him confused. It was obvious Kyoya had an idea, but what?

"No, before that," Kyoya clarified. "Why _can't_ we hire someone?"

"Okay," Melody said exasperated, going back down. "It's obviously _way_ past your bedtime if you think _that's_ a good idea."

"No, really. Think about it," Kyoya continued, already typing on his computer.

"I _am_ thinking about it Kyoya!" Melody said, confused and annoyed as she sat up. "Who would we 'hire' to host a bunch of ladies at a high school party? Not to mention, anyone outside of this school would consider this a ball, not just a mere party. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't make sense and/or isn't plausible!"

"Oh, but it is," Kyoya replied as a smile appeared on his face as he looked at something on his computer screen.

"What?" Melody got up and hurried around behind him to see what would have the Shadow King smiling. What she saw really shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did. "You want to hire _hosts_ to attend the party for the host club?!"

"Why not?" Kyoya glanced up at her as she leaned on the back of his chair. He was slowly, but surely growing more accustomed to her lack of personal boundaries. "It's not like the idea of hosting was discovered by Tamaki. And this way he can't complain that they aren't handsome enough or don't have enough training in 'how to treat a lady'."

"While all of that is true, don't you think it'd cause competition to our sales? I mean... What if the ladies decide that they like these hosts more and stop coming to the club?" Melody didn't want to discredit or reject Kyoya's idea, but there really were too many uncertain variables. "And if you're planning on saying that the ladies would keep coming because you guys are a bigger catch, don't bother. It's true that some of our guests are just trying to catch your guys' eyes in the hope of snagging a rich husband, but not all of them are. Besides, we don't have time to run a background check on the number of unknown people we'd have to hire. Not even you could do it, sweetie. We should really try to stick with people we already know. We don't want to risk anything that could harm us, our guests, or the school's reputation," she advised as she rubbed his shoulder comfortingly before moving back to sit at her chair.

Kyoya hated to admit it, but she was right. Sighing and nodding in defeat, he leaned back in his chair for a moment before something she said recurred in his mind. "Wait, what did you just call me?"

"What?" Melody asked confused. "Did I say something weird?" She wracked her mind and reran through what she could remember of her mini-speech, but couldn't remember anything that would make him react.

"Did you call me 'Sweetie'?" Kyoya repeated, a small smirk tugging at his lips.

"Did I?" Melody asked surprised. "Sorry! Must've slipped out. Back in Texas—where I grew up, remember—everybody calls everybody 'sweetie,' 'honey,' sweetheart,' 'sugar,' and a bunch of other things like that. Must've slipped out of habit. Really sorry! I know you guys are kinda anti-PDA here in Japan. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything," Melody apologized. She hadn't realized that she had let her guard down that much.

"You didn't," Kyoya said before he realized what he was saying. Eyes widening slightly, he coughed and pushed up his glasses in an attempt to mask his embarrassment. "W-what I meant to say was t-that... uh..."

Melody raised her eyebrow as she bit her lip in amusement. _Was the great and powerful Shadow King really flustered?_

Clearing his throat, Kyoya tried again. "What I was trying to say was that I don't mind if you let your guard down with me a bit. I promise I won't hold anything against you as long as you don't hold anything against me. Lord knows that my guard is down around you more than it should be."

Melody couldn't discredit what he said. In the two and a half weeks that they'd spent working together after the rest of their club-mates went home, they'd become a lot more relaxed around each other and had formed a sort of unspoken and unacknowledged trust. To be honest, despite the shady evil overlord character mask he put on in front of others, Melody was actually really enjoying getting to see glimpses of the real man behind the mask. But Melody wouldn't be Melody if she didn't tease him a little.

"Oh, you mean like that time where you tried to make popcorn and almost burned the school down? You mean you _don't _want me to tell _everyone_ that story?" she asked in mock-shock before laughing at the expression of horror on his face and the memory.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

_A couple of days earlier when they had been figuring out how much money they could afford to spend on the party, it had gotten late and Kyoya offered to make them a snack. Melody hadn't thought anything of it and had nodded her consent as she focused on the computer, willing the numbers on the screen to bend to her will. However, she was quickly pulled out of focus when she detected the smell of smoke filling the air. She had rushed to the en-suite kitchen to find Kyoya had placed the bag of popcorn on a skillet in the middle of the stove. The bag had skipped popping and gone straight to burning, filling the room with smoke while sending the popping kernels flying in every direction. She had immediately rushed over to take the pan off of the heat, but before she could grab a damp towel to throw over the bag to stop the burning, she felt a cold, damp feeling as white filled her vision. She tried to reach out to Kyoya to get him to stop spraying the fire extinguisher, but it had made the floor slippery and she lost her balance, falling into him. Her momentum had knocked the both of them to the floor. She landed on top of his chest as he fell backwards. Quickly trying to extricate herself, they wound up getting more tangled in each other as they got covered in more foam from the floor. By the time Kyoya grabbed her arms to steady them, they were a mess._

_"What the hell?" she asked laughing at their appearance. His hair was ruffled and his glasses were slightly askew as his pant-legs showed wet spots and his shirt was equally worse for wear. Fortunately, she found that her uniform was mostly untouched because her hair, arms, and face had taken most of the blow. As hilarity took over, causing her to burst out into laughter, she asked, "Don't you know how to make popcorn?"_

_Blushing slightly, Kyoya had immediately moved to de-tangle them from each other before getting up and helping her to her feet. "Actually, the chef or my sister usually makes it for me if I stay up too late studying," he told her, embarrassed._

_"Okay, well lesson one smart guy: read the instructions. Bagged popcorn goes in the microwave and loose popcorn goes in a covered pot on the stove," she instructed between giggles as she used a clean towel to clean her face and arms before pulling her hair into a pony tail. "Now how about you go get changed into a less destroyed uniform as I clean this up before my best friend kills us. Don't worry, it shouldn't take too long, you got most of the fire extinguisher stuff on you. Get changed and back to that budget and I'll act as your staff for tonight," she winked, shooing him from the kitchen._

_It really hadn't taken long to clean up the mess and she had joined him 30 minutes later with their snack. They had agreed that Bea would never know of the damaging blow her kitchen had taken. And Kyoya agreed to never try to cook without supervision again. It was their secret._

* * *

"Wait! That's it!" Melody was excited as she realized a solution to their problem.

"You want me to burn down a kitchen?" Kyoya asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, not that," Melody waved her hand in a quick dismissive motion. "The staff! We could just have them dress up in slightly nicer suits than what they were going to wear and remind the ladies that they are there to serve them! If a girl wants to dance and the hosts are all occupied, she could ask one of the staff members to be her partner!"

"Not a bad idea," Kyoya acquiesced. "It wouldn't cost us any more money and it would be up to the ladies whether or not they asked them to dance. Tamaki can't complain about them being there, because he already approved of the staff."

"Exactly!" Melody was excited that they finally found a solution and could go home. "Plus, if the ladies are too...uptight...they don't _have_ to dance with the staff, but the option remains open if they change their minds."

"Sounds like a plan," Kyoya agreed as he powered off his laptop and packed away his things. "I'll let the staff know in the morning."

Melody followed his example and began to gather her things. As her laptop powered down, she caught a glimpse of the time on the display. "Oh shit!" she exclaimed, "Is it already this late?"

Kyoya glanced down at his watch and agreed that it was far too late for a young lady to walk herself home alone. Especially when you considered the type of neighborhood she lived in. "Would you like a ride?" he offered.

Melody bit her lip as she considered her options, but even she couldn't deny that it wouldn't be rational to walk home alone at this hour. But, still... "I wouldn't want to impose," she bit her lip uncertain.

"Please, I insist," Kyoya said as he gestured for him to go out the door ahead of him.

"Well, if it's not too far out of your way, I'd really appreciate it," she finally accepted.

"Not at all," Kyoya replied as he texted his driver. By the time they reached the front of the school, the driver was waiting for them. Kyoya helped her into the vehicle before following her. The 20 minute ride was mostly silent except for a whispered thanks every few minutes from Melody.

"I really do appreciate the ride, Kyoya," Melody thanked him one last time as the car parked out front of her apartment.

"It was really not too far out of my way," Kyoya smiled. "It was actually sort of on my way."

"Well thanks again," she smiled as the driver opened the door. "I'll see you tomorrow at school," she said as she took the hand the driver offered. "Thank you," she smiled to him as he helped her out of the car. Kyoya's driver watched as she walked up the stairs and let herself into her apartment with a wave behind her before getting back into the car and driving off towards the Ootori estate.

"If you don't mind me saying sir, she's not really like the other girls at your school. She's different."

"That she is," Kyoya agreed with a small nod. He spent the rest of the ride carefully pulling his mask back into place before they reached his home.

* * *

After waving to Kyoya's driver again, Melody walked into her apartment to find a scene that was beginning to become more familiar than not. Honey was happily gobbling down his strawberry shortcake as he allowed Bea to happily tie ribbons and bows in his hair. The lack of a giant confused her momentarily until she heard the familiar clatter of dishes being cleaned in the kitchen. Yelling out, so he could hear her over the sound of the water, she greeted everyone as she moved to drop her things off in her office. "Hey guys!" she smiled at the two sitting at the kotatsu, "Takashi!" she called in terms of greeting towards the kitchen. "How was your guys' evening after you abandoned Kyoya and I back at school?" she asked in mock annoyance, her smile revealing her jest.

"It was good!" Bea smiled happily as Takashi joined them in the main room. "There are some leftovers for you in the fridge. I can heat them up for you, if you want—" she moved to get up, but Melody held up a hand to stop her.

"I got it! Thanks!" she smiled as she moved towards the kitchen. "So does anyone want to tell me why Mitsukuni has bows in his hair?" she called out to her friends as she got out the Tupperware from the fridge and poured the contents on her plate. Deciding to just eat it cold, she rejoined her friends with a smirk playing on her lips.

"I wanted to... try out hairstyles for.. the next club meeting?" Bea answered before receiving an accusing raised eyebrow from Melody. "Or the future?" Her answer was sounding more like a question the longer she went on.

Snorting in amusement, Melody turned her questioning gaze towards her friend's boyfriend, her mouth too full to re-articulate her question.

"She wanted to and Mitsukuni said she could," Mori answered as he pulled Bea into his lap. _If you had asked me before they started going out, I never-ever would have guessed Takashi would be the touchy-feely, affectionate type_, Melody mused as she smiled at her friend's pouting face due to the fact that Mori was sitting just far enough away from Honey that she couldn't keep playing with his hair from her new position. _But I guess it _does_ make sense... What, with him not being as much of a talker, he has to show his feelings somehow_.

Between mouthfuls of food—and sometimes even in the middle of mouthfuls, much to Bea's chagrin—Melody filled her friends in on everything she and Kyoya had decided on after they had left. She explained the different options they had considered and how this was the only one that they could possibly make work with such short notice. If she had expected some huge rejection from these friends, she really couldn't claim to know them well.

Bea accepted the idea relatively quickly after hearing the absurdity of some of the options they had gone through earlier in the evening. To be honest, she actually really liked this plan. Mori and Honey weren't the biggest fans of the idea at first, but they knew their friends well enough to know that they had exhausted all other options before reaching this conclusion. They agreed it was actually not that bad of an idea and agreed to help get Tamaki to agree to it before the party. They kept brainstorming ways to get him to agree until Mori and Honey's driver knocked at the door to let the group know it was time for the guys to leave if they wanted to make it home in time for curfew.

"Well, we'll see you guys tomorrow!" Melody said her goodbyes as the guys gathered their belongings and she moved towards her studio to try to get some work done before bed.

"I'll see you down in the car," Honey smiled to his cousin as his sugar rush sent him bouncing down the stairs like a bunny rabbit, bows flying around in his hair as he went. Bea—having walked them to the door—giggled at the sight before she turned her eyes to look up at her boyfriend.

"Goodnight," she whispered with a content smile gracing her lips. Mori looked at her for a moment before bending over to brush his lips against hers in a brief kiss...

Their first kiss.

Enjoying the surprise in her eyes and the way she tried to hide her face as a blush colored her cheeks, he gave her a gentle smile as he whispered "Goodnight," back to her.

"Goodnight," she repeated, embarrassed but very happy as her blush stained her cheeks red.

Unable to resist the feeling of wanting to hold her in his arms, Mori pulled her into a hug and leaned over to kiss the temple of his petite girlfriend. "I'll see you tomorrow," he whispered into her purple hair before forcing himself to let her go so he could walk down the stairs to join his cousin in the car.

Still blushing, but with a happy smile on her face, Bea stayed at the door and waved goodbye as he climbed into the car. Watching the car for as long as she could as it drove off into the night, she went back inside after the luxury car turned a corner and disappeared from sight. She hummed softly and happily to herself as she went back inside and started her nightly routine. Bea made sure to lock the door and windows before she went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Once she had finished changing, washing her face, and brushing her teeth, she turned the shower on high to heat it up as she walked into the music studio to grab the back of her best friend's shirt. Ignoring Melody's unhappily protests, Bea happily dragged her away from her work to shove her in the bathroom to shower and get ready for bed before going into her own room and crawling into bed—humming the entire time.

* * *

**Please, please, please let us know what you think in a review! We can't tell you how surprised and happy we are by the number of people who have started following and favoriting this story (especially considering it only came to be by us gushing over how we were in love with two of OHSHC's hosts before deciding to rush home to write a story where we actually get to meet them and fulfill our fantasies), but please let us know what you think! Give us feedback! I thrive off of constructive criticism! Give us ideas and prompts! We aren't saying we'll officially include them, but we might!**

**I'm really having fun playing with the differences in the cultures between America and what I've seen/read about Japanese modern culture. Keep an eye out, because I'm going start dropping more hints for the future and about the past now that we've finally got this story going. Please let us know what you think!**

**Also, Emily won't stop gushing about getting to go home early for Thanksgiving break. Specifically about how she'll get to see her boyfriend tomorrow... Jerk.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: The Job of a High School Host p3**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello! Read on!**

* * *

The evening of end of the third of week of school found the host club and their customers gathered in Ouran Academy's largest hall. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, the night sky was clear and the stars were sparkling, and everyone was dressed in formal attire and were ready to enjoy the host club's party. The room was mostly dark with only accent lights to allow only enough lighting that nobody would hurt themselves. All of the ladies gathered in the hall and were chatting idly among themselves when all of the lights cut off, clothing the room in darkness.

"It is so good to see you here tonight, my little lambs," Tamaki paused as he cued the spotlight aimed where he was standing at the center of the balcony over the double set of stairs leading down into the ballroom, the rest of the hosts lined up on the stairs below him. "The host club would like to bid you... Welcome!" As he finished with a bow, all the chandeliers flashed on and the orchestra started to play, cuing the start of the festivities. All of the ladies smiled and started to applaud at the Host club's grand entrance.

"As always ladies, the host club members and the staff are here for your entertainment," Kyoya said with a gentlemanly flourish. "So we invite you to dance to your heart's content... Based on her dancing skills, one special lady will be chosen as tonight's queen. The queen's reward will be a passionate kiss on the cheek from our king."

"Good luck to you, my darlings," Tamaki smiled with a wink, making all of the girls squeal in delight. One girl even fainted in her throes of happiness. As Haruhi's eyebrow twitched, the twins came up behind her.

"Haruhi," they reprimanded, "show some enthusiasm!"

"Well, excuse me you guys! Sorry," she apologized with an annoyed tone. "I'm not used to this sort of thing," she explained. "I've only ever gone to the festivals held in my neighborhood park."

"I don't know if you could really consider that a party, or not," Kyoya observed. "Well, since you're already here, you might as well get yourself something to eat," he offered absentmindedly as he wrote in his notebook that he had conjured up from who-knows-where (another dimension if you asked Melody). "We've got quite a spread." At Kyoya's offer, Haruhi perked up.

"A spread?" Haruhi thought for a moment. "With... fancy tuna?"

At these words, all of the hosts freaked out. Kyoya's pen shattered in his hand, the twins clung to each other, Mori and Honey looked like they had been struck by lightning, and Tamaki single-handedly flipped over the railing above them to land next to the group. By the time he landed, the twins were both hugging a blushing Haruhi as Mori and Honey looked on (mostly to ensure Haruhi wasn't being suffocated), and Kyoya's binder had magically disappeared to be replaced by his phone in his hand. After he landed, he turned to his best friend and ordered that he "get some fancy tuna here right now!"

"Add some deluxe sushi," Kyoya said into his phone after dialing. _These filthy rich jerks_, Haruhi thought as she blushed profusely in Hikaru and Kaoru's arms.

"You really always overcome everyone's expectations," Melody said gracefully, appearing beside her friend, throwing the twins off of her. "You always know the best ways to get everyone to completely overreact about the smallest of things. Oh! And before I forget... Your brown suit looks nice Haruhi. Bea did a really nice job," she winked conspiratorially. Haruhi had begged her father to loan her one of his older suits to wear to tonight's party and Bea had gained permission from the Fujioka patriarch to fix and tailor it to Haruhi's measurements.

"It really wasn't much," Bea blushed from besides Mori. "I really think the twins are the ones who outdid themselves." Melody was sporting a lovely floor length emerald green evening gown. The strapless bodice sparkled with the hand embroidered sequin and bead work that had obviously taken the twins hours to complete. Bea's pink dress was made in a similar style to her best friend's. The entire bodice was embroidered with lovely sequins and sparkles, and the pink skirts also kissed the floor in certain places. The main difference was that while Melody's fitted bodice dipped into a "V" at her waist and seamlessly flowed into her skirts, Bea's dress was adorned with a bow at her stomach from which her _layered_ skirts started. Both girls had their hair done up in elegant french twists that left just enough hair down at their neck to curl and pull over their shoulder.

"Are those new necklaces?" Kyoya noticed their matching jewelry. Both girls hands flew to their necks in confusion, before a shared smile graced their faces. The necklaces were fairly simple, and modest, but definitely didn't lack sparkle. The identical necklaces consisted of a single large diamond in a bezel setting surrounded by about a millimeter of silver metal connected to a chain that was just long enough to sit at the clavicle and not choke the girl.

"Actually," Melody blushed. "These were my mother's. The diamonds have been passed down to the eldest daughter in my family for generations. She gave them to me as a pair of diamond earrings. I had to sell off the smaller stones to kick start Catchya, but I had the one carat stones reset in white gold. I gave one to Bea on the day we were announced emancipated. I wanted her to know that she's my sister and that we would always find a way to take care of each other."

"We don't wear them often because they're so expensive, but we thought we'd make an exception for tonight," Bea smiled happily.

"Anyway," Melody smiled, "We have a party to host and a long list of ladies who'd love your attention, so let's get this party started!"

"Of course," Tamaki smiled, turning to the ladies. "Now who'd like to be my partner for the first dance of the even—?" Before he could even finish, he was surrounded by so many ladies that the other hosts knew it would be a while before the mob dissipated enough to allow them to interact with their illustrious leader. The twins and Honey followed the mob towards the dance floor, grabbing the hands of nearby ladies as they went. Haruhi excused herself to go grab a quick bite before hitting up the dance floor.

"May I?" Mori asked, bowing towards Bea with his hand extended to ask for hers. Bea nodded as a light blush covered her cheeks and she allowed her boyfriend to escort her to the dance floor, leaving Melody and Kyoya alone.

Not wanting to give him the chance to ask her to dance, Melody made her escape. "Well I'm going to go check and make sure the orchestra has everything they need before I grab one of the employees to dance with. You should really get out there," she smiled at Kyoya before holding up the notebook he hadn't realized she had taken from him. "And I'm confiscating this for the evening. You need to dance with our guests," she held up her hand to halt his protest. "And before you say anything, I'm going to send it back to my place where you can pick it up tomorrow. You need to relax after the party. We can worry about all of the numbers _together_ in the morning. This is the only way I know you won't do it by yourself tonight. And don't worry," she teased with a wink as she turned to walk away, "I promise I won't read anything."

Kyoya shook his head to clear his mind as he watched her go. She really found a way to make sure she always had her way and he decided to not argue with her this time. He could really use some sleep later. But the one thing he _couldn't _clear from his mind was the way she had wiped away a tear as she turned to leave, a quick and graceful movement he knew she hadn't wanted anyone to notice.

* * *

As the evening progressed, the night found the male hosts dancing with several of their clients. All of the gentlemen smiled and swept their partners off of their feet... Well, all of the gentlemen except for Haruhi, who leaned against a pillar with a smile on her face as she watched all of her friends enjoy themselves. As much as she had tried to stop them, Melody and Bea had insisted on working to ensure the party was a success since the male hosts would be tied up n the dance floor for the majority of the evening. Melody was constantly checking on the orchestra and staff while Bea made sure that none of the chefs needed any assistance. More often than not though, Mori wound up dragging Bea onto the dance floor every few songs (fulfilling his host club duties and dancing with other ladies while she was gone) and Melody danced just as much, if not more with the gentlemen around the room. Up until this point, Haruhi hadn't danced much and was just enjoying the party from afar. Unbeknownst to her, two of her guests were trying to work up the courage to ask her to dance, when Kanako Kasusazaki walked up, pulling Haruhi out of her thoughts.

"Hello Haruhi," she smiled. "I've been looking all over for you. Do you think maybe I could have the next dance?"

"Yeah," Haruhi smiled as she pushed herself away from the column and held out her hand for Kanako to take, "Of course you can." However, it wasn't meant to be because just as Haruhi led them onto the dance floor, Tamaki gave the order to "commence with the operation." Before either Haruhi or Kanako knew what was happening, Honey and Mori had rushed by, sweeping Haruhi off of her feet as they went, leaving a confused Kanako behind to dance with a smiling Tamaki.

Meanwhile, Haruhi, Mori, and Honey walked (or in Honey's case—bounced) into the club room to join all of the other remaining hosts. After being put down from being slung over Mori's shoulder, Haruhi turned to reprimand her friends for being so forceful, but was ignored and interrupted as Hikaru placed a clothing bag in her arms and told her to get changed before an excited Honey pushed her behind the changing curtain.

Haruhi took a deep breath and got to work changing out of her suit and into her "disguise" as Kyoya mentioned that "a little accident toward the end of the night would be quite thrilling," to the rest of the boys. "And remember Haruhi," he called out, "We have 20 minutes remaining before the party reaches its climax. Suzushima is already waiting for you in the classroom across the hall."

"You have to ask him how he feels, okay?" Honey continued as Hikaru and Kaoru applied quick-remove makeup to Haruhi's face while muttering how unsettling it was to see Haruhi like this. Just as they finished, Melody and Beatrice burst into the room.

"Here you guys are!" Beatrice exclaimed flustered as they rushed in.

"What are you doing?" Melody reprimanded as she strut over to the boys, her green dress flowing around her legs as a few more strands escaped her elegant bun to frame her face. "The guests are all waiting for you guys! You can't all just disappear from your party at the same time! What were you thinking?"

"I mean, really! Tamaki has already escorted Kanako out of the ballro—" Bea started, but paused as Haruhi stood and turned around. "Haruhi?"

"So? What do you think?" The twins chorused, proud of their work.

"Wow! You look so cute!" Honey complimented Haruhi as a small blush crossed Mori's face, giving a slight nod in agreement.

"My face feels heavy and it's hard to walking these shoes!" Haruhi grumbled as she awkwardly marched by her friends.

"Welcome to the pains of being a woman!" Melody declared as she rushed the others to head back to the ballroom.

"I can kind of see why Ranka was so depressed when she cut her hair," Bea muttered to her friend as they escorted—read "corralled"—the other hosts back to the ballroom.

"No kidding," Melody smiled to her friend. "You two did a great job," she complimented the twins as they called back to Haruhi wishing her luck. Haruhi just waved over her shoulder to acknowledge them before taking a deep breath before entering the classroom to greet Toru.

* * *

Toru Suzushima was looking out the window at the blooming cherry blossoms when he heard the door open behind him. Turning around, he was surprised to see the complete opposite of what he had imagined his secret admirer to look like. "You're the one who wrote this letter?" he asked surprised. "You're totally different from what I expected."

And it was true. Instead of a chipper, hyper, head-cheerleader-type young lady with curly blonde hair pulled into pigtails wearing a girly dress with more ruffles than Kanako had in her entire wardrobe, this young lady was much more approachable. Instead of the excitable, over-make-uped blonde in his mind, this young lady had straight long brown hair and almost no makeup on. Instead of the super-frilly dress he had imagined she would prefer, this young lady wore a simple pink knee-length dress with a flower arrangement on her shoulder and opposite hip. He found himself relaxing as he looked into her deep chocolate brown eyes. She really _was_ nothing like her letter conveyed her to be.

"Letter?" she questioned. Instead of reading it out loud, he handed it to her.

"I'm in love-love!  
From the first time I saw you, I've been head-over-heels in love! [giggle]"

Haruhi paused to baffle at the fact that the word "giggle" had actually been written.

"My heart is stuck in a never-ending typhoon!  
All these feelings of love keep whipping around in my heart like the breaking waves!  
When the typhoon's rising waters come, I want to rendezvous with you on Noah's Ark!  
I do! I do!"

_Who wrote such a stupid letter? _Haruhi wondered as she sweat-dropped, remembering that the twins and Melody had been eagerly working together on something a few days earlier.

"Excuse me, have we met somewhere before?" Suzushima asked, causing Haruhi to panic.

"Wahhh—Uh, no! This is the first time I've ever talked to you!" Haruhi explained with a nervous giggle.

"Uh—I'm sorry," Suzushima's tone made Haruhi look up. "I'm flattered by your letter, but I'm afraid I don't feel the same way. You see, another girl already has my heart."

"Oh, well I didn't know that you already had a girlfriend," Haruhi replied, straightening up.

"Unfortunately, she's not my girlfriend," Suzushima sighed. "In fact, I think she's completely over me. In all honesty, she'd be happier with someone more self-confident than me." Haruhi paused as she looked at the internal struggle playing on his face. "That's why I decided I need to change. I want to see the world and hopefully, become a better man," he explained with a wistful expression on his face. "I know it's selfish, but I wonder if she'll wait for me."

"Yeah," Haruhi replied with a thoughtful expression on her face. "You're right. That _is _pretty selfish of you," she replied, sending an arrow through any self-confidence and pride he _did _have. "But maybe she _would_ wait. You'll never know if you don't tell her how you feel. You _obviously_ have strong feelings for her, so why not go ahead and talk to her? I think once you decide to change, then you've already begun your transformation."

Suzushima was surprised to say the least. This girl had supposedly come to confess her feelings for him, but was now giving him heartfelt relationship advice. Without thinking, he lifted his hand toward her before glancing up to see Kanako standing in the doorway with a shocked expression on her face. As he exhaled a gasp in shock, a whisper of her name escaped his lips. As if the sound of her name wounded her, Kanako immediately recoiled, and ducked her head, allowing her hair to hide her face as her eyes welled up in tears.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean to interrupt you two, I just—" Kanako stopped when she could no longer hold back her tears. Not wanting her hurt to be mocked, she immediately turned and ran off down the hallway, leaving the door open behind her. Even though he was across the room, Suzushima was quick to react and chase after her, calling her name. He didn't even bother to apologize to the girl he was abandoning, since his sole focus was on the girl abandoning him and he'd be damned if he didn't chase after the girl he loved. Haruhi followed him out of the room before watching the two lovers run down the hallway.

"Looks like we just made matters worse," Haruhi said to Tamaki when she sensed him walk out from behind the door behind her.

"But he _did_ go running after her," Tamaki smiled causing Haruhi's eyes to widen in realization before she sent a sideways smirk to the man next to her. _It's our responsibility as members of the elite Ouran host club to make every girl happy._

"Now come on," Tamaki smiled, as he turned to walk in the opposite direction, towards the ball room. "The party's finale is almost upon us and it would be unfitting for a 'gentleman' to wear a dress."

As if his words had knocked her out of a relaxed trance, Haruhi hurried back to the club room to hurriedly scrub all traces of makeup off her face as she tugged back on her suit again. Rushing back to the ballroom, she made it just as four spotlights flashed on outside the ballroom to capture the moment a desperate (and slightly sweaty) Suzushima caught a surprised and teary Kanako's wrist.

_What kind of goose-chase did she lead him on if he only _just_ caught her? _Haruhi briefly wondered as Tamaki's voice sounded over the speaker system.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began as the doors swung open and everyone trickled outside. "It is now time to begin the final dance of this evening's festivities. The last waltz of the night has been chosen by the host club for this couple," he smiled as he gracefully gestured to Kanako and Suzushima. Kanako was frozen in surprise when she felt Toru let go of her wrist. Backing up a few steps as she tore her eyes from the hosts to look at the man beside her, she was even more surprised when he bowed to her.

"Princess Kazuka," he said as he held out his hand. "May I have this dance?"

If she was surprised before, she was shocked now. _Wasn't he with another girl before? Doesn't he have feelings for her? Is he only chasing after me for familial obligations? Does he even _want_ to dance with me? _All of these thoughts swirled through her head until she saw Toru—the boy she had loved since she was a child—look up and see the concern in her eyes. All it took was a warm, reassuring smile—as if she was the only woman he could see—and her doubts were banished as she smiled and took his hand. "Yes."

The hosts and their guests all watched with smiles on their faces as Toru Suzushima confidently led Kanako Kazusazaki in a waltz. Well, everyone except for two trouble-making twins who decided that the perfect waltz-watching snack would be bananas and that now would be an excellent time to chow down. Kanako couldn't care less though as she smiled up at the man she loved from the circle of his arms. If she had thought that was the happiest moment of her life, she would have been immediately discredited after what he said to her next.

"I love you Kanako. I've always loved you! And... I want you to be my wife," he told her without a trace of doubt in his voice or in the eyes that looked lovingly into hers. She knew that the tears blurring her vision this time were physical evidence of her overwhelming happiness as she smiled in their dance.

"Tonight marks the end of my host hopping," she pledged to him.

"May this awkward couple be forever blessed!" Tamaki sighed happily as the twins came up behind him holding microphones in one hand and finished banana peels in the other.

"And now we'll announce the queen of the ball!" Hikaru proclaimed.

"Congratulations Ms. Kanako Kasusazaki!" Kaoru finished as the sound of applause filled the air, making Kanako blush.

"And for her reward, a kiss on the cheek from the king!" Hikaru continued, banana peel now 'magically' missing from his right hand.

"Are you ready?" Tamaki said in an almost seductive tone as Haruhi gave him the side eye.

"Haruhi Fujioka will stand in for Tamaki!" Kaoru (now also without his banana peel) announced to the shock of both Haruhi and Tamaki.

As both hosts freaked out, the twins explained, "Kyoya did say that a little accident towards the end of the night might make the evening more thrilling for everyone!"

Ignoring the panic from Haruhi and Tamaki, Suzushima placed a reassuring hand on his troubled fiancee's shoulder. "It's just on the cheek, right? You should accept it! It will commemorate your graduation from host hopping!"

"There's no way I can kiss her," Haruhi said, annoyed. However, her tune quickly changed when Kyoya mentioned reducing her debt by a third if she did it. "Well, it _is _just a peck on the cheek," she reconsidered as she moved to walk down the steps.

"Hey," Honey realized as he popped up next to the twins who were currently holding up a suddenly weakened Tamaki. "You don't think this is Haru-chan's first kiss, do you?"

"What?!" a revived Tamaki exclaimed in shock as they watched Haruhi moved to kiss Kanako's cheek. "Wait Haruhi!" he exclaimed as he tried to rush forward and stop her. His equilibrium was severely hindered though when a banana peel appeared under his foot. Slipping, he accidentally pushed Haruhi into Kanako making their lips press together in a real kiss.

Hearts floated above the heads of all of the guests as they squealed in happiness as the two girls jumped apart. _I never would've thought that I'd end up giving my first kiss to another girl. _Haruhi mused. _But it _was _such an amazing night, so I guess it's just as well!_

She spent a few minutes chatting and apologizing to Kanako when she noticed that the guests were all gathering their things and moving towards the waiting cars. She made a quick trip back to the club room to gather her things. When she got back, she noticed a few things:

First, Tamaki and the twins had already left.

Second, Honey was eating cake by himself as Mori and Beatrice were in their own little world talking outside.

And third, Kyoya was the only one really concerned about the party's cleanup and was instructing the staff. As much as she wanted to stay and help, Haruhi knew she had to get home to take care of her dad and shower before she spent the night at Melody's and Bea's. She made a beeline for Honey, let him know she was leaving and rushed outside, just as Melody got back from seeing the last guest off safely.

After telling Haruhi she'd see her later, Melody took a minute to glance around the hall before her eyes narrowed on her target and she marched on a war path towards Kyoya.

"Hey, _Ootori_!" Melody called out to him as she marched over. "Do you want to tell me why it was a good idea to leave Beatrice and I to take care of the entire party when you all disappeared? I mean, I get the part about Tamaki's plan needing someone to do Haruhi's makeup and get her changed, but don't you think either Bea or I could've managed to make that happen instead of completely losing ALL of the hosts? And on top of that—" her rant came to a halt as she slipped on a stray banana peel and awkwardly twisted her ankle in her high-heels. Instinctively knowing that she was going down, she squeezed her eyes closed and braced herself to hit the cold tile, when she felt two strong, warm arms wrap around her waist.

If Kyoya hadn't been less than three feet away, she probably would have fallen and injured her ankle farther, but as it was the two hosts found themselves staring into each other's eyes as her arms instinctively wrapped around his neck to brace herself. She opened her mouth to thank him when her injured ankle reared its ugly head and made her gasp in pain instead. Kyoya immediately crouched down and swept her up into his arms bridal style and carried her across the room to the others. Melody blushed in embarrassment at her predicament. She had been so focused on tearing Kyoya apart, that she hadn't been paying attention to where she was going. Somehow, she had managed to slip on a banana peel and injure her ankle in a way that required her to be caught and carried by the very person she had been planning on attacking. As someone who spent most of her life taking care of herself, she felt very flustered at the fact that she was now being taken care of.

Long before they reached Honey's table, the lolita host noticed Melody grimacing as Kyoya carried her.

"Ano! What happened?!" he exclaimed as he rushed to get a chair ready. His exclamation brought Mori's and Bea's attention to them and they rushed inside to join them, just as Kyoya gently placed Melody down in the chair before moving to kneel before her.

"I just slipped," Melody blushed in embarrassment. "It's really no big deal, but I would've fallen if Kyoya hadn't—OW! Be a little gentle, would you?" she asked in pain as Kyoya lifted her foot to rest on his raised knee so he could examine it.

"She twisted her ankle," Kyoya supplied as her gently got to work unstrapping her shoe so he could examine her injury better. After successfully removing the strappy high-heel, he glanced up. "Mori-sempai, would you mind seeing if you could find a first aid kit?"

"I'm going to kill those damn twins!" Melody grumbled in annoyance to distract herself as Kyoya poked and prodded her ankle to see where it was most internally damaged. As a dancer, she was more than familiar with injuries to her feet and legs, but even she had to admit that she was concerned about how fast her left ankle was turning blue and purple. Biting her lip against the pain, she decided to whimper and nod to let him know whenever he hit a tender spot as she tried to keep her mind from going back to remembering how it felt to be held in his arms and how much she already missed the feeling. _No! _she internally reprimanded herself. _Get a hold of yourself! __People are only here to hurt you! Especially men. You can only trust Bea! She's the only one who will never hurt you. You have to get over whatever this feeling is. You can't fall for him... Especially him! He's the Shadow King, if _that_ doesn't scream untrustworthy, I don't know what does! But still..._

Bea saw the subtle thoughts flash through her friend's eyes and felt sympathy for her turmoil through her own worry. None of the hosts knew what Melody had gone through when she was younger. While her many trials had helped her grow and made her into a strong and independent young woman, they had also crippled her in ways unseen to most. After being betrayed and hurt so much in her life, Melody was very cautious to say the least. Over time, she had started to develop a deep distrust in others and had begun to block her heart off from everyone apart from her best friend. By now, she had built up a nearly impenetrable wall around her heart, guarding it with caution, distrust, and occasionally hostility. For someone who she knew believed that everyone was eventually going to hurt her, Bea knew that it must be incredibly difficult for Melody to let her guard down enough to let Kyoya tend to her injury. _I wonder if he will he the one to finally breach the wall to her heart. Oh I hope that if he does, he doesn't hurt her. I don't think she can take any more pain and rejection. I'll have to keep an eye on them and intervene if necessary. I _won't_ let her be hurt anymore._ "How bad is it Kyoya-sempai?" she vocalized as Mori returned with the first aid kit.

"I don't think it's broken," Kyoya glanced at Bea over his shoulder as he accepted the first aid kit. "I'm pretty sure it's just a sprain. But at the very least, she should really try to not put any weight on it for at least a week and keep it wrapped to allow it to heal quicker. I'd recommend she skip school and stay home, but—"

"That's fine," Melody replied, much to the surprise of the men around her. "What?" she asked at the expression on their faces.

"We just thought you would've put up more of a fight about missing school," Mori replied.

"Oh, yeah... That's not really a problem," she replied. "I was already planning on taking some time off soon to get some work done for Catchya... Due to the late hours with the club, I've had quite a bit of paperwork and demos pile up that I really need to take care of. I can work at my desk at home, right?"

"As long as you keep your ankle elevated and keep weight off of it, I don't see the problem," Kyoya replied as he finished wrapping her ankle. "Now about getting you home," he leaned back onto the heels of his feet. "I'd offer to escort you, but I still have business here that needs to be finished."

"I can carry her," Mori offered.

"That's right! We were going to drive the girls home," Honey smiled as he subtly examined his kohai.

It didn't take a genius to notice that Melody and Beatrice had seemed a little cautious as Kyoya had revealed a bit of his softer side. They didn't know him like Honey did, though. Their families had always been close business-wise and since Kyoya had trained in karate at the Haninozuka dojo from a young age, the three older boys in the host club had grown up relatively close before they entered middle school. Honey knew that due to the strict way he was raised, Kyoya did not normally trust people enough to let down his guard around them. Actually, the original members of the host club had been the only exception to the rule that Honey knew of... until now. However, as soon as he mentioned that he and his cousin would escort the girls home, Honey saw the signature glare of Kyoya's glasses and watched him abruptly pull his guard back up as if he hadn't intended to let it fall in the first place.

"I see," Kyoya replied as he pushed his glasses up higher on his nose as he stood up and brushed himself off. "Thank you Honey-senpai. And I trust you can take care of her Beatrice?"

"Of course," Bea replied with a smile. "I'll make sure she doesn't overdo something and hurt herself before I drag her to the hospital in the morning."

"That would probably be a good idea," Kyoya smiled at the young girl. It was difficult to _not_ open up to the purple haired girl.

"I don't want to," Melody cut in, throwing a wrench in the conversation.

"What?" Bea was confused.

"The hospital," Melody replied, crossing her arms defiantly. "I'm not going."

"The hell you are!" Bea replied angrily, also crossing her arms with a no-nonsense look on her face. She knew her friend had trust issues and hated doctors, but this was non-negotiable.

"The hell I'm not!" Melody said with a pout.

Sensing an argument about to arise, Kyoya decided to cut in. "If you don't want to go to the hospital, I can arrange for one of my family's doctors to join me when I come over in the morning."

"Wait—what?" Bea was getting flustered. "You really don't have to go out of your way senpai, I just—"

"It's not out of my way," Kyoya replied. "If I remember correctly, Melody already invited me to work out the final numbers for this evening. That is, as long as it's not an inconvenience for you?"

"Uh—no... Actually, I was going to go out on a date with Takashi tomorrow, but—"

"Perfect!" Melody cut her friend off. "Then you can enjoy your date, we can get some work done, and no one has to worry about rearranging their schedules to make sure someone is around to babysit me and make sure I don't do anything reckless or stupid!" Melody smiled. "Now that all of that is settled, if only there was a way we could get home..." she hid her smirk as she tapped a finger to her chin in thought.

"I'll get the car Mel-chan!" Honey exclaimed as flowers popped up around his head as he bounced out of the hall. Bea still felt conflicted, but looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It really isn't a problem, Beatrice," Kyoya told her softly as Mori and Melody talked with each other. "I know you and Mori-senpai have been looking forward to your date. You should enjoy it."

Bea nodded her consent as he turned away to clear up a few last details with Melody. _It's you taking care of her that I'm worried about_, she thought as she watched her friend interact with the man she was supposed to hate.

"I hope you have a good evening ladies," Kyoya smiled and bowed to them both before turning to walk back to where he had left the staff.

"Uh, Kyoya?" Melody called after him, making him pause and turn back around a few steps away. "You didn't give me a chance to thank you."

He paused and smirked, in true Shadow King fashion said, "You may want to hold off thanking me until you the bill for my services." He smiled evilly turned back around, leaving to rejoin the staff he had left before. Melody's jaw dropped in shock, before realizing that she really should have expected that.

"May I?" Mori asked his classmate, wanting to be sure she was alright before he picked her up.

Smiling at her classmate's thoughtfulness, Melody nodded. "Yes, thank you Takashi." He nodded as he bent down to pick her up as Kyoya had done earlier. Melody wrapped an arm around his neck to steady herself as he carried her out to the car. Melody had to make a conscious effort to push back the thought that it had felt better in Kyoya's arms. _Of course it did! This is Bea's boyfriend, not yours!... That doesn't mean that you want Kyoya to be your boyfriend either... wait... What?! Do I like Kyoya?!_

* * *

**I'm going to stop this chapter here! Hope you enjoyed! I'm really on a writing kick, so watch out! I know that this and last chapter were both over 6,000 words, but (as Emily can testify) that kind of broke me and sent me into a psychotic and physical break... I don't know if I can keep that up, so let's just see where this goes.**

**Also, why are you all so quiet? Please let us know what you think! Review! If you hate it, let us know! If you love it, let us know! If you think it's corny and stupid... We already know that, but please tell us where you think we can improve!**

**Love you all lots! Thanks for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: The Calm Before the Storm p1**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, I did steal a few ideas for this chapter from the manga/anime "Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma." If you haven't watched/read it, I highly encourage you to do so! I know the first two episodes are border-line hentai, but once you get past those, it's actually a really cool show! Warning: the show does strip the characters a lot... Nothing ecchi is shown, but it sometimes doesn't leave much to the imagination... Nothing more than that though... It really sounds worse than it is.**

* * *

Two weeks after the host club party, Haruhi, Bea, and Melody were gathered in the girl's apartment for their long anticipated sleep over. The girls had all been swept into their own whirlwinds of chaos in the past two weeks and they were excited for the opportunity to catch up on the events in their lives.

Due to the fact her ankle had been officially pronounced sprained by the doctor Kyoya had brought, Melody had been staying home on medical leave and had taken this opportunity to get work done instead of lounge around all day. Now not only was her neglected work caught up, but she had gotten some extra demos recorded as well as obtaining another business contract. Due to her injury currently preventing her from travelling, she had landed a Skype-interview with a large company that wanted her to work with their artists in downtown Tokyo. She had (of course) nailed the first round of the interview and was looking forward to the possibility of meeting more clients.

While Melody had been busy with work, Bea had been training in Hokkaido. While she had been on her post-party date with Mori two weekends ago, she had received a call informing her that she had been accepted into a two week intensive training program in Hokkaido. Not only did she have to cut her date with Mori short, but she had to rush home to pack and immediately head to the airport. Melody was used to not hearing anything from Bea while she was training, but (according to Haruhi) the lack of contact had apparently caused a huge deflation in Mori's mood. Haruhi assured that it wasn't too drastic a change, but he definitely hadn't seemed as upbeat the last two weeks. Bea had already called him and made plans for the two of them to go on a date the next day.

Despite the intense and busy program Bea had gone through, Haruhi seemed to take the cake on busiest weeks. On top of joining a cram-school in the evenings, the host club apparently couldn't wait long to have their next event and had planned a sakura viewing picnic a week and a half after the party. Immediately following that, Haruhi had to go through the chaos that the host club referred to as "Operation: I swear Haruhi is really a boy!" at the physical exams. By the time Bea had joined her in class on Friday afternoon, Haruhi had almost cried in relief that she wasn't the only sane person at school now and had demanded that the girls have a sleepover that evening. She knew that Melody was planning on returning to classes the following Monday, but desperately needed a break from the craziness found in the host club.

Now all three girls were dressed up in their pajamas and had set up "camp" around the kotatsu, ready to tell their tales.

"So who's first?" Melody asked as she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.

"Personally, I'd like to hear what we missed at school," Bea turned to Haruhi. "How was the club while we were gone?"

"Translation:" Melody smirked, "How was _Takashi_ while _she_ was gone?"

"Mel!" Bea reprimanded with a blush.

"It's really fine!" Haruhi smiled. "I kinda figured that's what she meant."

Bea blushed a deeper red as Haruhi joined in the teasing.

"And he was fine," Haruhi assured her friend. "Honey-senpai made sure Mori-senpai was never too lonely. Plus, it's not like he had much of a chance to be with the host club the way they are..."

"Sounds like an entertaining story!" Melody smiled. "It's official! Haruhi goes second! I want to hear Bea's story first!"

Bea sighed as she put her head down. "It really wasn't much," she explained. "It was pretty much a shorter version of the Stagiaire Trials in France."

"The what?" Haruhi asked confused.

"Oh, stagiaire is a pretty common term for a cook or chef working at a restaurant for free. The Stagiaire Trials are pretty much a way for restaurants and food companies to hire aspiring chefs to get practice in a real kitchen," Bea explained. "There's pretty much only one main requirement: in the week you spend with the company, you have to make a lasting change or impact. In some cases, it's a month-long program, and you visit four locations. In this case, it was just a 2 week program, so I only went to two locations. If I had failed, I would have been kicked out of the program I'm in and would have been blackballed in the industry as a chef." Haruhi's head was spinning at all of the new information she had been given.

"But aren't most chefs incredibly stubborn? How would you be able to make a change in their kitchen?" Haruhi asked.

"It definitely wasn't easy," Bea agreed as she tried to hide a yawn. "Both places I worked at were well established restaurants too... It really wasn't easy."

"So what impact did you make in the restaurants?" Haruhi asked.

"Well, the second week was a lot harder than the first. The first restaurant I was assigned to recently had a bunch of urban development work done nearby. The owner was a third-generation owner of the place and didn't want to change the feel that made the restaurant what it was... However, due to the new train station nearby, they were no longer able to keep up with the influx of customers and had a lot of dropped orders. Using some of what Melody taught me, I helped them set up a system to change their restaurant's seating to by-reservation-only. It was a huge hit with the loyal customers who hated the rushed feeling before and wanted to relax as they ate."

"That's great!" Melody complimented. "Sounds like you did a good job there, but stop avoiding the real question... I know you worked at Shino's Japan... How'd that work go?"

At the mention of Chef Shinomiya's kitchen, Bea groaned and buried her face in her arms. "Well, since I finished at the first restaurant in half a week, I got to spend longer at Shino's Japan. Due to it being brand new, the first two days I had to work with construction and then they had me help in the kitchen for the pre-opening week. Shino's is already well established in France, so the staff already had a rythym and flow. It was really difficult to get accepted into their team. As sweet and kind as they were during non-business hours, they weren't exactly open to welcoming a new member to their team dynamic."

"That's not fair," Haruhi protested. "If they don't let you help, how are you supposed to—"

"That's the challenge," Melody cut her off. "And this wasn't Bea's first rodeo. She's done this before. I'm willing to bet that you worked yourself raw though," she turned to Bea. "What? I bet they let you sleep on a couch in the back room. Did you wake up super early to do all of the prep-work before they arrived so that you could ask them to teach you new things and help you learn where you made mistakes?"

"You're right," Bea agreed with a sigh. "As always, you're right. I had a lot of work laid out for me in just getting the team to accept me. If getting barely any sleep to get them to accept me was a way to accomplish that, then it was worth it. The real challenge was in the fact I also had to make a lasting impact on the restaurant. The only way I could do that at Shino's was to win the new recipe contest at the end of the week. Somehow, I miraculously won and one of my French desserts made the menu. If it hadn't, I would have failed."

"Wow... That's harsh," Haruhi's eyes widened. "Would you really have been blackballed from being a chef if you hadn't passed?"

"Well, there's more than just two steps, but basically yes. If I had failed in this program, I would've been dropped from the association I'm training in. It's really prestigious and well-known around the world. Basically, no one wants to hire a patisserie chef that's been dropped by them."

"That's the battle of the talented," Melody lamented. "That's why we're so lucky that you're so gifted. I'm guessing you want to find a kitchen to practice in now, huh?" she asked her friend.

"Of course!" Bea agreed, a new spark lighting up in her eyes. "I can't let anything I've learned go to waste!"

"Good," Melody smiled as Bea excused herself to use the restroom. After she left, she felt Haruhi's eyes on her. "May I help you?"

"Does Beatrice seem...different to you?" Haruhi said uncertain.

"Yup!" Melody seemed unfazed. At Haruhi's expectant stare, Melody sighed and continued. "The Stagiaire Trials has a second secret goal. The obvious one is that the students have to leave an impact on the restaurant, but there's a secret other ultimate goal behind that. If the chef goes through the Stagiaire Trials and doesn't learn anything new or grow at all as a chef, then the entire trial was pointless and they've failed. The Stagiaire Trials save both restaurants and chefs."

"So what changed for Beatrice?" Haruhi wondered.

"I'm guessing that her first experience taught her about satisfying all of the customers' needs and the second helped her grow in confidence. You know her well enough to know that she isn't exactly meek, but she isn't the biggest fan of conflict. She doesn't want anyone to be upset. I'm betting the chefs at Shino's steamrolled her at first. She probably had to grow a lot to be able to stand up to them. You should have seen her before the month-long program in France. You probably wouldn't even recognize her. In comparison, this is actually a pretty subtle change, but I'm betting her cooking will be that much more amazing. The downside to her doing the trials now is that she doesn't have access to a full kitchen to keep practicing what she's learned. In France, she had access to the patisserie kitchens and she'd often work until late at night. But she's not attending a high-level cooking program here, she's attending Ouran Academy."

"I guess that makes sense," Haruhi agreed. "So what is she going to do?"

"I wouldn't worry about her too much," Melody leaned back with a relaxed smile. "Most likely, she already has a plan of action. She's a big girl who can take care of herself."

"Can I come out now or are you two not done talking about me yet?" Bea called from her bedroom.

Both girls burst out laughing as they called for their friend to rejoin them. After all, it was Haruhi's turn to tell them about her week.

* * *

Flashback

About a week and a half after the successful party, the Ouran host club was gathered on the grounds for a flower-viewing reception. While most of the hosts were dressed as waiters, Haruhi, Mori, and Honey were dressed in traditional kimonos for the more traditional tea making. The tables were decorated with many different tea sets. They had many English antique sets that were simply gorgeous. Most of the hosts stayed in the main area and hosted the English-style outdoor tea party. While she hadn't been stationed in that area, Haruhi could only assume what was going on based on her knowledge of the hosts. Tamaki was probably wooing his guests, his flowery words sweeping them off their feet. At one point, the twins would create some excuse to fall all over each other in their twincest schtick. The girls would probably get so excited, that it would be extremely easy for Kyoya to sweep in and sell them some host club merchandise. _Actually, th__at's probably exactly what's going on._

However, Haruhi's main concern wasn't how the other hosts were serving tea, but about how _they_ were going to serve tea. Haruhi, Mori, and Honey were off in their own area separated from the other guests. Their area was more secluded to exhibit a more calming atmosphere for the more Japanese style tea reception the host club was offering. They had quite a few options for the guests in terms of traditional Japanese tea snacks, but Haruhi was wondering what to do about the actual tea.

_Should I say something to him?_ Haruhi wondered as she watched Honey focus on mixing the tea. The main problem was that he was mixing it so much that there wasn't much left in the cup to serve. Both girls sitting with the three 'boys' also had concerned looks on their faces as they watched Honey prepare their tea with a determined look on his face.

"Mitsukuni," Mori tried to get his cousin's attention. When he failed to respond, Mori leaned closer to Honey's ear and told him the truth. "You overdid it." Haruhi and their guests were shocked that Mori had said something as Honey realized that there really was only a few drops left in the bowl. As tears of disappointment appeared in Honey's eyes, the girls quickly tried to make him feel better as Mori brought out more ingredients.

"Honey, I'll take it! It looks so yummy!" the girl closer to Mitsukuni said as she eagerly took the cup and drank its contents.

"Really it's just the right amount for both of us," the other girl continued, despite not getting any tea. "Any more would just be too much! How did you know? You never cease to amaze me!"

Honey bought it and perked up immediately. "Really?" he asked eagerly as Haruhi let out a sigh of relief.

A little while later, Haruhi was taking a break between guests when Tamaki interrupted it. "Haruhi," Tamaki called out from behind her, a smile obvious in the sound of his voice. Haruhi turned towards her posing senpai as he continued, "How are you doing? Are you having a good time? The flower-viewing reception is going over quite well," he said before glancing at her over his shoulder. "But even so, it's daunting to spend more time being admired than doing the admiring."

Haruhi sweat-dropped as she realized that Tamaki was fishing for compliments. She decided to humor him as she said, "Wow senpai, you're blooming in more ways than one."

"You noticed!" Tamaki got excited, before reverting back to his host-mode, "Yes, today my beauty _is_ quite splendorous! I'm in full bloom! I bet you'll fall for me soon," he finished confidently with a wink.

_I_ swear... Haruhi thought as her eye twitched._ This guy must live his life completely unaware of the hardships of this world_. Her reasonably good mood lowered a bit at his absurdity. Before she knew what was happening, both twins were hanging off of her asking about the three of them taking the same elective courses next term. Haruhi already had a pretty good idea which courses she'd be taking, but decided to indulge them for a bit before she was pulled away when Tamaki grabbed her shoulders with a frantic look on his face.

"Listen Haruhi," he told her urgently. "I want you to stop hanging out with those shady twins from now on!" Haruhi was too confused by his antics to reply as Hikaru and Kaoru piped up their protests.

"Who are you calling shady?" Hikaru scowled.

"Yeah," Kaoru continued. "Take a good look at yourself, Boss!"

Tamaki stumbled backwards, away from Haruhi as he had a sort of epiphany. "All right then! We can't go on hiding the fact that you're a girl from the school any longer!" he clenched his fist with a determined look on his face. "All Daddy wants is for you to go back to being the girl you used to be! For you to surround yourself with girlfriends and start leading a wholesome life!" he exclaimed as tears ran down his face.

"Who are you calling 'Daddy'?" Haruhi questioned. "And what do you think Beatrice and Melody are?" her questions went unanswered as Tamaki shook her and babbled incoherently for her to do as he wished now.

"You don't have to rush things," Hikaru reminded. "She's going to be found out soon enough."

"Physical exams are the day after tomorrow," Kaoru continued.

"Physical... Exams?" Haruhi questioned.

"That's right," Kyoya confirmed. "I forgot all about it."

"Then that means... They're going to figure it out," she said as she put a finger to her chin in thought. "They'll know I'm really a girl."

Haruhi heard one of her guests call for her as her words sent a shock through all of the male hosts. Ignoring the boys, she moved to take care of her next few customers before heading upstairs to change out of her borrowed kimono before heading home for the day.

The next day, she went through her daily routine as if nothing was off. After class, she had to stay behind to ask the teacher a few more questions and it took a bit longer than she had expected. Even though she hurried, she knew she was late for club time when she opened the door. "Hey guys, sorry I'm so late—" before she could even finish her apology, Tamaki had grabbed her shoulders and was speaking urgently to her, tears in his eyes.

"Don't worry Haruhi," he said, "We're determined to keep your secret. No one will find out that you're really a girl during tomorrow's physical exams! So please," he begged. "Promise you'll stay our beloved secret princess!"

"Sure," she replied, blinking in confusion at his random outburst.

Mere moments after she had given her consent, all of the hosts were gathered around the whiteboard Tamaki was drawing on. Across the top were the words "Operation: Conceal Haruhi's Gender." Right below that was a subtitle that said "A.K.A. Operation: I Swear Haruhi is a Boy!"

"Listen up squad members," Tamaki instructed them as if he were a drill sergeant. "At tomorrow's physical exams, position yourselves in Position A, and then wait for your orders!" At this point, the twins were saluting him, Mori looked bored, Kyoya was writing in his notebook, and Honey was clapping as if Tamaki were a genius. Haruhi stood off to the side trying to figure out just what she had missed while talking with the teacher.

Coming to a realization, she smacked her fist into her hand, "I've got it! You guys are worried cause if they find out I'm a girl, I can't be a host and therefore can't repay my debt!" Turning around, she started muttering to herself as she did the math in her head. "My balance is 5,333,332 yen... Hmmm... Well, guess I'll have to come up with another way to pay you back," she said with a laugh.

Tamaki turned on Haruhi dramatically, "Are you saying that you hate being a host? That you hate this club?" he demanded.

"To be honest, I'd have to say 'yes'," she replied thoughtfully, effectively sending Tamaki to sulk in a corner. "I mean you guys aren't bad. But if it gets out I'm a girl, there's nothing I can do, you know?"

The twins were discussing ways to try to convince her to work with them when Mori had a sudden thought. "Fancy tuna," he bribed her.

Everyone then proceeded to tease her until she agreed to go along with their plans in exchange for the promise of getting to try some ootoro.

The next morning, Haruhi's morning was proceeding normally until the announcement came over the speaker system for the students to proceed to the clinic in their school building. As they walked together, Haruhi tried to question the twins about "Formation A" and how the physical exams here would be different from the physical exams everywhere else. The twins told her that it was the same as anywhere, but when Haruhi opened the door to the infirmary, she knew that was _not _the case. A long aisle stretched down the room and nurses and doctors were lined up on either side.

Completely dumbfounded by the extreme production Ouran turned it's physical exams into, Haruhi watched as the twins followed some nurses away before hearing her own name. As Haruhi was dragged down the aisle by her nurse, she caught sight of Honey and Mori dressed up in lab-suits. When Kyoya walked up, Haruhi thought she'd finally get some straight answers, but was disappointed when he compared this to a real espionage mission.

When Haruhi vocalized her confusion at how absurd all of the doctors were acting, Kyoya reminded her of how this was actually a formality due to the fact that most students had private doctors at home. _These damn rich people_, Haruhi thought as she followed her nurse, leaving Kyoya behind. By this point, Haruhi thought she couldn't take much more nonsense when she was proven wrong by the sight of the twins confidently strip their shirts off in front of a bunch of squealing girls.

_What's wrong with the girls at this school?_

While the twins distracted everyone with their twin-cest act, Honey and Mori had dragged Haruhi off and had shoved her by a separate curtain. Haruhi lost her balance and almost fell, when she felt arms embrace her from behind. Immediately, she broke the embrace in panic, but slid to the floor when she realized it was only Tamaki.

A moment later, Haruhi heard her nurse call for her to disrobe so her chest measurements could be taken. Despite her protest that he explain, Tamaki told her to stay hidden as he took care of it and repeatedly promised to protect her. For a brief moment, Haruhi deluded herself into thinking Tamaki _actually _had a plan, until he walked out in a wig and claimed to be her. Of course, everyone knew it was him immediately. She was so tired and annoyed by everything that had happened up until this point that when he apologized, she could only glare at him as her mood plummeted.

In the end, it turned out that Kyoya had set up a special clinic just for her with a doctor sworn to secrecy. All of the doctors just happened to work at one of the hospitals his family managed. At this point, Haruhi was so desperate to get away from the drama that she was more than happy to use the "Special Boy's Clinic." As she took off her outer shirt though, she turned around to find some random male doctor enter her changing room while acting like he was hiding. As soon as she made her presence known to him, he immediately grabbed her and begged her to stay quiet.

Before she could react, she heard her name being shouted as a flying Tamaki kicked the man into the wall. The entire host club had come to her rescue.

After their unnecessarily dramatic and menacing entrance, the man immediately begged for his safety as Haruhi wondered what was going on _this_ time. As she wrapped Tamaki's skirt around herself, they all listened as the man (now known as Doctor Yabu) broke out his life story. He told the club—and Haruhi's very disinterested doctor—about his failing medical practice and how his wife and daughter left him. By the end of it, Tamaki was the only one who was completely won over by the sob story. It didn't take long for Kyoya to realize that Doctor Yabu had the wrong school. Tamaki requested for a map of the public schools in the area in a hope to help the doctor find his family before they sent him on his way.

By the time all had been said and done, Haruhi was able to complete her physical exam as a boy. No one outside of the host club knew her secret, the hosts were all happy, and Tamaki was still a pervert.

* * *

Bea and Melody just looked at each other before bursting out into laughter.

"Okay," Bea conceded between giggles. "Your week was worse than mine."

"No kidding," Melody agreed. "And if that all happened in just the past three days, I'm almost scared to know what happened the rest of the time we were gone."

"It wasn't _that_ bad," Haruhi told them. "At least everyday is entertaining. I'm more concerned about how you've been the last two weeks, Melody."

"Oh my goodness! Me too!" Bea exclaimed. "I feel so bad, tha—"

"Stop!" Melody cut her off by slapping a hand over her best friend's mouth. "No! Bad!" she reprimanded as if she were training a puppy. Bea rolled her eyes as she pushed Melody's hand away.

"I'm worried about you Mel. I'm not a dog," she grumbled. "And I'm going to stop you before you protest because I have every right to be concerned! I mean... Look at your studio!"

Melody glanced behind her into said room, before turning back to her friend confused. "What about it?"

"It's clean!"

Melody's eyebrows knit themselves together in confusion. "And that's a bad thing, because...?"

"No, it's not _bad_," Bea dismissed her friend, who was obviously not getting her despair. "It was just a huge disaster when I left and now it's tidy."

Melody and Haruhi looked at each other in confusion. Bea hated messes and both girls knew that the chaos in Melody's studio was normally a huge pet peeve for her.

"Oh for goodness sake! There's no way you should have been able to clean up and take that much trash out with your ankle the way it is!" Bea exclaimed.

"That's right!" Haruhi exclaimed, finally understanding. "I know that I've been too busy to come over and help, but—"

"Will you both stop!" Melody cut off their flustered chatter. "Both of you are fine! I know you had cram school after club time Haruhi. And Bea... If you tell me that you've been worried about me the entire time you've been gone... yeah..." she paused as she thought it over. Bea would worry about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, if you brought it to her attention. She just loved to take care of everyone so much that she worried in her sleep. "Never mind... You're you... Of course you worried... But really! I'm fine, okay? Someone else came over a lot and helped me out!"

"Who?!" Both Haruhi and Bea exclaimed.

"Ummm... Kyoya?" she answered nervously.

"What?!" To say both girls were shocked would be an understatement.

"What do you mean, 'Ummm... Kyoya?'" Bea asked in shock.

"I mean, he always left club right after the customers left, but I was always in such a rush to get to cram school that I never really thought to ask," Haruhi said thoughtfully. "Are you saying that he was coming here?"

"Maybe? Kinda..." Melody didn't quite know _why_ she was nervous to tell the girls about Kyoya's visits. Well, that was a lie... She _did _know why, but was in denial about it.

Seeing their friend's timid response, Haruhi and Bea glanced at each other before launching their full-frontal attack. They wanted information and they wanted it _now_. Seeing the determination in their eyes, Melody knew that they wouldn't stop until they were satisfied with her response. _This is going to take a while_, she thought as she internally suited up, mentally preparing herself to tell them about the past two weeks. Sighing in defeat, she motioned for her friends to calm down as she decided to start from the beginning.

"Well... It all started the day after the party..."

* * *

**Okay! That's it for this chapter! I have a feeling that Melody's two weeks are going to be at least this long so I'll just plan on making the next chapter super fluffy as I fill in the blanks!**

**I really hope you guys are enjoying the story. I can't tell you how thrilled we are at how many people are following Sweet Music! It's being favorited and followed by so many people, yet we still have no clue what you think. Please feel free to let us know! We'd love to hear your response in a review! Well, we'll see you next week (or earlier if you ask for it)! Bye!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: The Calm Before the Storm p2**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yeah! Hi... So I know I left off at a weird place last time, but I had a feeling that Melody's story would be a lot longer than either of the other girls' and since I already had more than 5,000 words, I thought it'd be better to give Melody's story her own chapter. Hey look! I was right! Well here you go!**

* * *

"I'm fine, okay? Someone else came over a lot and helped me out!"

"Who?!" Both Haruhi and Bea exclaimed.

"Ummm... Kyoya?" she answered nervously.

"What do you mean, 'Ummm... Kyoya?'" Bea asked in shock.

"He always left club right after the customers left, but are you saying that he was coming here?"

"Maybe? Kinda..." Melody was nervous to tell the girls about Kyoya's visits.

Seeing their friend's timid response, Haruhi and Bea glanced at each other before launching their full-frontal attack. Seeing the determination in their eyes, Melody knew that they wouldn't stop until they were satisfied with her response. Sighing in defeat, she motioned for her friends to calm down as she decided to start from the beginning.

"Well... It all started the day after the party..."

* * *

"Flashback"

The party was a vast success and Melody had somehow managed to flip that upside down when she twisted her ankle. After the party, Mitsukuni and Takashi had helped her into her room, while Bea had informed Haruhi that they'd have to postpone their sleepover. Not wanting to deal with the discomfort her ankle was giving her, Melody had quickly ripped the bobby pins out of her hair, brushed her teeth, and scrubbed her face before swallowing a few pain and sleep aids. She had conked out soon after.

The next morning, Melody was awoken by a very annoying buzzing. Still half-asleep, she blindly batted her hand in the direction of the noise, hoping to make it stop. She heard giggling and cracked one eye open to find Bea grinning over her.

"Wakey, wakey!" Bea smiled at her best friend. Melody grunted in response before rolling over, pulling her blankets over her head as she went. Bea clucked her tongue in annoyance. "Nope! Come on! It's time to get UP!" She went and opened up the blinds before ripping the blanket off of her snoozing friend. When Melody practically growled in response, Bea just giggled. "Okay, up! Takashi is going to be here to pick me up soon! I know you can't do much until Kyoya's doctor examines you, but you NEED to take a bath before they get here!"

"Don' wanna," Melody grumbled while trying to get comfortable again. "It's the weekend."

Bea understood that because Melody liked to work late into the evening, she wasn't always the most happy person to be around in the morning. In exchange, Bea had made it her personal mission to be able to be the "morning person" and help her best friend get going in the morning. That was part of the reason Melody showered at night while she showered in the mornings. Typically, Bea didn't bother Melody until after 9 or 10 am on the weekends, but she knew her friend hadn't bathed the night before and would want time to do that and at least blow-dry her hair before company arrived. She had let her sleep in as long as possible, but it was already 8 and Takashi was supposed to arrive at 9 to have breakfast with them. Kyoya had texted Bea the evening before to let her know that he and the doctor would be over at 10:30. Normally, Bea was the more go-with-the-flow type of the two girls while Melody loved her schedules, but today Bea was not ready to deal with Mel.

"Do you want everyone to see you un-showered?" Bea asked her friend.

"Did it last nigh'," the half-asleep girl responded.

"Did you?" Bea asked. Melody sorted through her groggy brain for a minute before she sat up, gasping.

"Nope! Help me!"

"That's what I thought," Bea sighed as she helped her friend get up and hop towards the bathroom, supporting most of her weight as they went. After helping her friend disrobe and sink into the bathtub, Bea left her friend to clean herself while she went to the kitchen to make breakfast. She had just put their breakfast casserole in the oven when she heard Melody call from the bathroom. She quickly set the timer before rushing to her friend's room. She quickly grabbed a loose pair of sweat pants, undergarments, and a tanktop for Melody before going into the bathroom. After helping her friend get dressed, they limp/hopped back into Melody's room where Bea set up the hair dryer for her to use as she sat on her bed. While Melody dried her hair, Bea re-wrapped her ankle. When Melody was reasonably presentable, Bea helped her hop to the living room and set her down at the kotatsu before she heard the doorbell and her timer ring at the same time. She froze for a moment, conflicted about which to get first, before deciding on door, then food.

Bea quickly swung the door open to reveal her boyfriend. She didn't even give him the chance to greet her before scurrying off to the kitchen to get the timer and the casserole out of the oven. Mori just stood in the doorway confused.

"You can just come in Takashi!" he heard Melody call. "Don't let all of the warm air out!"

Taking that as his invitation inside, he quickly closed the door and removed his shoes before entering the main room of the girls' apartment. Melody was lounging at the kotatsu, currently in the process of trying to get comfortable while pulling her hair back at the same time.

"Sorry, Takashi!" Bea called from the kitchen, where she was flitting around. "It's good to see you!"

"Hey," Mori called as he moved to help Melody. "Can I help you with—"

"Nope!" Melody interrupted. "I got this, but if you don't mind, could you grab the stack of—never mind... Could you help me grab the stack of papers in my office?"

Mori just gave her a look that told her he thought she was crazy. Rolling her eyes, Melody explained. "There's no way I could explain which pile I need... Could you please just hel—Okay then!" Melody stopped when Mori lifted her up in one arm to carry her to her office. I really hope Kyoya thinks to bring crutches.

As they entered her office, Mori's eyes widened as Melody's scanned the room. "Oh! There they are! Take me over there... To the sound board," Melody pointed toward the covered equipment. Mori decided to just place her in her desk chair instead. She immediately started rolling around the room, gathering different files and folders as she went, occasionally handing a stack to Mori to take back to the living room. When she finally had all of the papers she wanted, she rolled her chair to the doorway, before allowing Mori to carry her back to the kotatsu.

When Bea exited the kitchen, carrying a large breakfast casserole, the first thing to greet her eyes was a large stack of paper beside Melody. Groaning, she moved around the stack to place the dish on the table before grabbing the silverware and dishes to serve them. By this point, Melody was already well absorbed in her papers and only noticed her best friend in the corners of her vision.

"Can I get you something to drink, Takashi?" Bea asked her boyfriend sweetly.

"Coffee," Melody interrupted. After a pause, "Please."

Bea rolled her eyes at her friends rudeness before turning her attention back to Takashi. "The same, if it's not too much trouble," he smiled.

"Of course not! You like it black right?" Bea smiled before dismissing her friend's protests. "Yes, I know how you like yours Melody, I was asking our guest! Besides! You need to clean your papers off the table if you want to eat anything!"

As Bea went to get their drinks, Melody rolled her eyes and cleared her work off the table. When she returned, the three had a great time talking as they ate their breakfast.

"This is really good Bea," Melody complimented, mouth full of food. Beatrice only rolled her eyes as she scolded her friends' terrible eating habits before standing to take the dishes back to the kitchen. Mori was quick to intervene.

"Let me," he said as he took the dishes to the sink and started washing them.

Bea started to protest, when Melody interrupted. "Just let him get them! You still need to get ready, right?" At this, Bea scurried to finish getting ready for their date as Melody got back to work. By the time Bea and Mori were ready to go, it was only 10:00.

"Just go," Melody said. Bea was in the middle of chewing her lip, but paused at her friend's words. "Just leave the door unlocked for Kyoya and go enjoy your date! I'll be fine for a few minutes by myself!"

"Are you su—"

"Takashi, please drag her out of here and enjoy your guys' date, no matter how much she initially protests!" Melody interrupted her friend. Takashi smiled and nodded at Melody as he dragged Bea out of the apartment. Melody rolled her eyes and giggled at how she could still hear Bea calling instructions to her from down the hallway as if she thought Melody was still a child. After rolling her eyes, Melody got back to work.

* * *

And then you carry the 3 here... But what about the $4,000 there? Did I buy some more equipment?... No... Oh! That was for the—

Melody's concentration was interrupted when she heard a pounding on the front door. Narrowing her eyes in confusion, she called out, "Who is it? I've got pepper spray and a gun!"

Kyoya let out a laugh when he heard Melody finally respond to his knocking. He had been trying for the past 20 minutes, but this was the first time she responded. "Kyoya Ootori and guest!" he called back, "Don't shoot."

"Oh... Come in!" Melody called back. "The door's unlocked and I can't walk!"

After letting himself in, Kyoya took in the view of the girls' living room. This was the first time he had ever visited the girls' apartment, but he had to admit that he hadn't expected such a mess.

"Don't judge," Melody grumbled. "Normally, all of these papers are littering my studio. Typically I file them as soon as I'm done with them, but since I can't exactly walk now..." she let herself trail off as she let her statement speak for itself.

Kyoya nodded in understanding before turning to introduce the man next to him. "This is Dr. Sohma. He has agreed to come and examine your ankle for you." Melody greeted the doctor before he got to work. After examining an x-ray, Dr. Sohma confirmed that Melody had only sprained her ankle, but insisted that she get a hard cast due to the fact that she was a dancer. Melody tried to argue that that meant she would heal faster since her ankles were strong, but he countered with the fact that she'd just try to get up and move it before it had completely healed. This was the best way to ensure she didn't hurt it more by being stupid. When she finally consented, he made quick work of applying the hard cast to her leg. After ensuring the cast had set properly, he left her with a prescription for pain meds and a pair of crutches.

Kyoya saw Dr. Sohma out. "Thank you for your help. I will make sure that my brother includes the payment for your services into your next check," Kyoya thanked him.

"Of course Master Ootori," Dr. Sohma bowed before heading down the stairs to the vehicle waiting to take him to the hospital. Kyoya saw the car off before going back into the apartment.

Melody smirked up at him when he entered. "Are you two done staring into each others' eyes?" she quipped. She let out a short bark of laughter when his eyes widened in surprise. He smiled when he realized she was joking.

"Ready to get to work?" he asked.

"What do you mean 'get to work'? I was working for a while before you got here... It should be me asking you if you're ready to work!" Melody stuck her tongue out at him before reaching behind her for her papers. When she realized that they were just out of her reach, she pouted and started opening and closing her hand as if she were a small child as she reached for her stuff.

Kyoya watched her for a few minutes before letting out a chuckle. "Need some help over there?" he teased.

Melody reached hard in her last attempt before giving up and pouting. "Oh shut up and help me," she pouted. Kyoya smirked as he walked over to the pile of papers. When he glanced into her studio by accident, he couldn't help as his eyebrows shot up in surprise. Melody glanced over her shoulder when she heard him stop and go silent. Following his gaze, she saw he was looking into her studio. "Oh, yeah... Sorry about that mess," she apologized, mistaking his shock.

"Huh? Oh, no... I was just surprised by how much equipment you had," he explained as he watched Melody get herself up with relative ease before using her crutches to join him at the entrance to her safe haven. "You look like you know what you're doing with those," he gestured to her crutches.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah... I got used to using them when I was younger," Melody explained. "What, with all of my old...dance...injuries." Melody bit the inside of her cheek as she blushed. She had almost revealed more than she ever intended to. It was just too easy talking to this guy. She had to make sure to watch herself. There was no way she was planning on telling him all of what happened in the past. Or ever mentioning what happened with her step-father ever.

Kyoya knew that she wasn't telling the truth as soon as her tone had changed. Her entire body told him that she was hiding something. He noticed that she immediately clammed up at the same time her entire body tensed when she caught herself at the word "dance." Part of him wanted to ask if she was okay, but he shut that part up as he thought over their conversation. She was fine until she mentioned her old injuries... And from what her step-father's file had said... Kyoya tensed as he came to a conclusion. He knew she may not want to reveal what happened, but this girl had somehow become like Tamaki to him. Originally a leech that he couldn't shake, she had somehow weaseled herself into his heart before he knew what was happening.

He hoped he was wrong, but he knew that there was no way he was leaving until he made sure.

"Come on, we need to talk," he told her in a no-nonsense tone. Melody looked at him, confused, before she was able to place his expression and realized that his stupidly large brain had figured it out.

"No," she narrowed her eyes as she pointed her finger in his face "No. No. No. I am not talking about it."

"But..."

"NO! Take a hint! Look at the status of his and my files! They're sealed for a reason! He—"

"Listen to me!" Kyoya interrupted as he put a hand over her mouth. She immediately froze and he backed off as soon as he realized what he had done. She quietly glared at him, daring him to continue as he took a deep breathe. "I know you don't want to talk about it and I get it... I just... After what you just said, I am hoping that you can put some of my assumptions to rest. Just... Let me tell you some of my theories and you can tell me if I'm right or not."

Melody's hard expression softened a bit as she saw the obvious—out of character—worry on his face. Backing up and turning back to the kotatsu, she sighed. "I can't do that Kyoya... What you're thinking... It's better if you don't know what actually happened. I'm sorry..." she sighed as she moved to start cleaning up her office. "Look... I'm sorry I can't alleviate some of your fears, but I can't talk about it... And to be honest, if you knew even a quarter of what happened, you wouldn't be asking me to either. Can we just get to work? I have stuff to do with my company after we're done."

"Then let me help," Kyoya said before he could help himself. After seeing her normally strong and independent nature become meek and timid like an abused dog, he knew that he had pushed too far. He wanted to help and make up for it. Eventually, he would get the whole story, but for now he would back down. Melody looked at him as if he were crazy. "Look, I realize I pushed you too far. I want to say that I'm sor—"

Before he could finish, the front door slammed open and a frantic girl flew across the house.

"Bea?!" Melody called out surprised as she glanced at her watch. She had only been gone for a little over two hours. "Did something happen? Where's Takashi?"

"Hi," Mori replied from the doorway as he took off his shoes.

"Takashi," Melody sighed in relief as The sounds of drawers violently slamming open and closed came from Bea's room. She could tell by his demeanor that nothing bad had happened between the couple. The fact he was here proved that Bea's frantic behavior wasn't caused by him. "What's going on?"

Mori gestured for Kyoya and Melody to sit down. "Nothing bad... I think," he started as the three of them sat down. "We were in the park when she got a phone call."

"She actually took a call while on a date?!" Melody interrupted, surprised.

"It was from Barbie," Mori said. Melody nodded in understanding.

Theresa and Barbie were the girls' adult counselors in America. When they achieved emancipation, the state had required them to agree to have a person they could contact as their "home base" back in America. Theresa was the woman who had taught Melody about the music world and got her interested in producing and recording. Barbie was the head chef in a 4 star restaurant. Bea had known her since she was young, long before the two girls' paths had ever crossed. It was not uncommon for either woman to call the girls at random. Because of the time difference between Japan and America, Bea and Melody made it a priority to try and answer their calls whenever they could.

"So what did she say?" Melody asked. "Is something wrong?"

Mori shook his head. "From what I could tell, there was a last minute opening in a cooking st-sag-shaig...

Mori's lack of french didn't matter, because Melody shouted in surprise. "Bea got a spot in a stagiaire? Where?"

"Osaka. It starts tomorrow," Mori explained. Melody nodded as she opened her laptop.

"Mel?" Bea called from her room. "Could you get—"

"I'm booking you a plane now!" Melody called back. "If it's anyone like the one in France, they should take care of housing you. If not, I know you can handle it!"

"Got it!" Bea panted as she rushed back into the main room on her way to the kitchen to pack her knives as Melody made her way to Bea's room to double-check her friend hadn't forgotten anything important. She had just finished throwing a few more items into her friend's bag when Bea reentered and packed her knives and other tools in her bag.

"Do you want me to see you to the airpo—?" Bea was shaking her head before her friend could finish.

"Takashi already offered to take me and sit with me until my plane boards," she smiled as she zipped up her heavy bag and lifted it off the bed. "It'll be a sort-of continuation of our date."

"Of course," Melody smiled. "I'm sure you guys want to be alone if you're going to be gone for a month."

"This is a shorter program," Bea explained as she lugged her heavy bag back into the main room. Setting it down, she absently brushed aside the few strands that had fallen into her eyes when she rushed around the apartment. "I'll be back before you know it!... OH! But what about you?" she spun back around to face Melody as she remembered her friend's injury.

"Don't worry!" Melody immediately consoled her friend. "I promise it's worse than it looks," she winked, laughing when she saw Bea—predictably—start fretting. "I'm kidding! Bea! Go focus on your program! You'll do great!" Melody pulled Bea into an awkward hug—crutches getting in the way—before turning to Mori. "Takashi, please take care of her... I know she won't, so—if you don't mind—could you please send me a text when she boards and the plane takes off?"

Mori nodded that he would as he moved to grab Bea's bags. "I'll see you downstairs," he told her as Melody went into full-blown overprotective mother mode. Bea indulged Melody's over-the-top worrying for about two minutes, before she really had to leave. The girls hugged again at the door before Bea left.

Melody sighed as she closed and locked the door, before moving back to the main room. She lifted her eyebrow in surprise at what she saw. As Melody had been focused on Bea, Kyoya had more than made himself at home. He was lounging casually at his spot at the table, innocently enough. It was what lied around him that surprised her. Not only had he made a pot of tea—MUCH to Melody's surprise—but he had moved all of the papers out of her studio and had organized them into piles. Each stack had a sticky note saying where in the room he had picked them up.

Internally she was very grateful at his thoughtfulness, knowing that her studio had been an organized chaos that only she could navigate. Externally though, she rolled her eyes at how easily he had made himself comfortable in her home right after they had argued. Then again, arguing then pretending it never happened seemed to be becoming the norm for them. "Make yourself comfortable, did you?" she asked, seating herself before serving herself a cup of tea. "Besides, I thought we agreed that you were banned from all of Bea's kitchens without supervision," she teased, letting him know she wasn't going to bring up the earlier conversation or just pretend it never happened.

"I did though," he smirked back. "Technically, Bea was in the kitchen when I made the tea."

"Bet she wasn't paying attention," Melody smirked. Kyoya nodded.

"I have my own electric kettle in my room," he explained. "I prefer traditional tea, but my parents refuse to let me have a burner upstairs." Melody choked on her tea as she burst out in laughter.

After recovering from her sputtered coughs—which left some of her tea on the front of her shirt—Melody glared at him jokingly. "You trying to kill me Ootori?"

"No," he laughed back. "If I was, I would have waited until you took a larger sip." He couldn't help the burst of laughter that escaped him as Melody snorted in amusement as she drank her tea, the air pressure being just enough to blow some of the liquid into her face and more to go down the wrong tube, causing another round of coughing.

She wiped her face as she recovered, glaring at the teacup as if it had betrayed her, she reached for her coffee before she saw the almost playful sparkle in Kyoya's eyes. Butterflies started dancing in her stomach as she felt as if her chest was expanding. She cautiously, slowly retracted her hand. "And I think I'm done with drinks now," she choked out. What on earth is he doing to me?! She shook her head to clear it as she reached for the nearest stack of host-club-related papers.

"So," she asked as she opened the folder. "Shall we get to work?"

* * *

The next few hours flew by as Kyoya and Melody worked side-by-side. Before they knew it, the clock was telling them it was almost 8 P.M.

Melody stretched, effectively cracking her back, as she sighed. "Did we really work through lunch?" she questioned Kyoya as he took off his glasses to rub the exhaustion from his eyes.

"It appears so," he replied. "Fortunately, we finished the final numbers for the party, but we still need to figure out where else we need to cut back expenses for this month's budget."

"Just reduce some of the predicted funding for the cosplay we have planned at the end of this month. I'm sure you all already have kimonos... Wear those instead of having new ones made," Melody suggested as she got up and hobbled to the kitchen to get some coffee, forgoing the use of her crutches. Kyoya nodded as he made the adjustments in the budget. "Do you want to order some takeout or just head home to eat?" she called over her shoulder. "I know it's late, and I'd offer to make something, but—"

"Don't work yourself too much," he scolded. "I intentionally didn't say anything about you walking without crutches just now, but you really should be careful."

"Worrywart," Melody muttered as she hobbled back with her coffee. "I needed my hands for my mug," she argued.

"And I'm sure you're full of many other similar excuses?" he questioned knowingly.

"Yup!" Melody smiled cheekily as she popped her lips to enunciate the 'P'. Kyoya smiled evilly as a new thought came to him.

"Then I guess I'll just have to come by everyday to make sure you take care of yourself," he smiled as if he were the cat that ate the canary.

"Wh-what?!" Melody replied, shocked.

"Doctor's orders," Kyoya smirked. She just glared at him, her eyes narrowed.

"...There's no way I'm getting out of this, is there?" she stated more than asked as she brought her coffee to her lips as he dialed a nearby restaurant to order.

"You sealed your own fate," he replied before talking to the person who picked up his call.

And seal her fate, she had. He came by everyday after club time ended to visit her. On the weekends, he spent all day in her company. If it wasn't for the piles of work she was cranking out during the day, she would have gone stir-crazy. She began to look forward to his company every evening. He'd fill her in on the happenings at school as he brought her the work she was missing. They'd then eat and joke around for a while before tackling the host clubs numbers together. She would have had to be completely obtuse to not realize that he was only this relaxed in front of her. If anyone else saw the sweet, snarky guy he was around her, they'd question where the real Kyoya Ootori had gone. The truth was that he was the real Kyoya. Whether he was relaxing his guard and letting loose or threatening people lower than him as the notorious Shadow King, he never was fake.

Though she loathed to admit it, she really enjoyed his company. She would have been so lonely for those two weeks if he hadn't visited. By now, she couldn't avoid the truth any longer:

Melody had fallen in love with the one and only Kyoya Ootori.

* * *

**Okay! That's it for this chapter!**

**I really hope you guys are enjoying the story. I can't tell you how thrilled we are at how many people are following Sweet Music! It's being favorited and followed by so many people, yet we still have no clue what you think. Please feel free to let us know! We'd love to hear your response in a review! Well, we'll see you next week (or earlier if you ask for it)! Bye!**


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